Pamela Sinicrope’s most recent poem to appear here was “An Exchange” (December 2017).
The Fermata
by Pamela Sinicrope
The symphony has shut down.
Violins rest in closed cases,
strings loosened for quarantine.
But I hear them still.
Pegs, turned and tuned
in practiced hands will play
with cellos, clarinets, horns
and trumpets . . . all spooling
a chord. I see how we endure
the fermata holding us over
the rest. If we can wait in this place;
soon, we will all sit together again.
I imagine piccolos,
like a clarion call of sparrows,
unshackling the all-clear.
I know sensations will return—
relaxed wrists, bow strokes on string—
a keynote will let go.
What a lovely, crisp poem. Slim words, heavy meaning.