pieces of the night

[Doreen Peri]

i wanted to write a musical score called "pieces of the night" but the themes kept slipping away, the slight tinges of harmonies began eluding me and i thought, "no, so cliche that title" and so i never even got to attempt the beginning chords or lines of any of the songs which i hoped would encompass a night dream.

you see, it was ten minutes to two one day in two thousand and two on a new week on the edge of several months before i met you, and i was in the middle of sizing up my life just as i am tonight.

It was much like many other nights only this one seemed uniform, combined, open to endless possibilities of time and matter of facts and i had this exact scenerio of a play in mind, a musical timed by unity, concise in its variable scenes, all coming together with a potentially volatile theme, each formed and performed on different levels of height with rotating motives.

"pieces of the night" was my votive candle, my heart gleaming through carved out stars and crescent moons, but i never wrote a note of it and it's again too soon your time, ten mnutes nearly complete, times two but i have three more.

three more minutes to complete this open discourse.
three more minutes for a force of inspiration.
three more minutes to show the vibration
of my very being;
three more minutes for seeing
ten minutes twice

but just as the counting of time is a vice,
i am reticent yet honored, a liquid gel
in your palm,
mercury

and the first song not yet written
is already one minute too long

pieces of the night. pieces of the night.
we invest in stars hanging on velvet black
backdrops, cumulous clouds in
shapes of body parts
coming together.

we are going into the studio
on friday so we can record it.
it's an endeavor grand, inventing.
we can't afford it yet
pieces of the night
are unrelenting.

i wouldn't trust or touch
a perscription to ten minute wishes
or ten shots of anything solitary,
replenished by luck
or infallible night slices

and if you would allow me the right
to be way over limit, i'll admit it.

you are the slight pieces of
ten minute
meaning small
wishes and if you want
to nod off,
that would certainly be
your right, certainly,
but as the warm-up spring
sings cardinal songs and
longs of crickets,

i vow that
i'll never allow you to blend
seconds with entropy or squallor.

the valor of persist
is to know you can't resist
persistance and faith.

ten cocks
crowing?

let's go!
i can't wait!

-dp