Song for Open Strings
--David Shapiro

The liquor store is closed, but open your mouth
The shadows of my old-fashioned windows shut by themselves
Are you holding to a word? Which word?
They closed the liquor store like French corollas
Open and play open strings like the moon over a tennis court
As you came from the profane land
Of the moon gardens of Riverdale
By the way, as you came
Were all eyes shut in the ocular orb
First the ocular orb, then the details
First bend your head, then keep your promises
Open up, open up the court, open
Years with no locks on the door
Your mind, oh youthfully blind
The way to the sun our friend our enemy is through open eyes
Open and tell the truth in time
Then be like language opening slowly in a little sunlight
Open your mouth my happiness and I will put a rose of music
between your teeth.


[from In Memory of an Angel, David Shapiro; City Lights Books (2017)]