along these lines of disbelief

along these lines of disbelief
I shall admit brief yearning to be
somewhere else not here…some other
time not now… for the momentary
suspend of my willing mind
to be a pretend instrument of art

so…I would be umbrella…opened
on a sound stage into pouring
rain…waltzed centrifugal
in circles…or…be coat rack
on Atlantic ocean liner…to be
twirled and whirled and edged
to horizontal… perpendicular,
master dancer improvised

or a D string…Stradivarius
pitched true and resonant
within spruce willow maple
to bow ethereal…
or whittled reed for oboe,
toned by embouchure and
authentic to remind me of
a primal ancestry…

or soot ponce arching visions
frescoed for a holy ceiling…
or a hammer ringing marble
from mountains in Carrara …
or a chisel… precise angled,
swimming surface… splashing dust…
sculpting whiteness to sublime

yet…here and now
I’ll wish and yearn…
suspend to minimal
to blue-black pen on paper…
pretend letters into words

Bonnie Marshall

Art by Duy Huynh