Come, meet the opening act

Who waits behind the blue curtain

Feel its coarse brush

As we take center stage in 

An orchestral performance 

To extend a life 

 

Arms wielding the strings take their place

A robotic quartet positions about center stage 

Hands raised

Murmurs stop 

Save for the beeping metronome

of the patient’s beating heart

 

All look up, they nod, surgeon’s fingers pinch 

Conductor takes their seat, quick swoosh of the wrists 

Those awaiting in a windowless room

Now quiet 

The first descent of the arms

Incises into silence 

 

Like fingers dancing on 

Tightropes, tense 

Atop a fingerboard 

Practiced hands 

In synchrony 

Perform

Any mistake a jolting brok-

en cord

Every pluck releases

Skin from core

 

Cup and caress bows falling 

Falling, falling 

Sweeping up in domino effect—

Bach’s dis-

joint

-ed precision 

Surgeon’s head in the console

Relaxes, retracts 

Applause pulls the conductor out of 

His trance–the end