awakened hallelujah

my fingers had been stuck
to the same keys
for an endless stretch of stillness
trapped between what was
and what could be

“play me a song”
her voice sliced thru
that heavy fog of thought
where I’d been wanderin lost
among the shadows of intention

I pressed the pale ivory high
like awakenin an old memory
the note hung suspended and lonely
while she watched with eyes
witnessin the birth and death of song

“play me somethin happy”
I surrendered again
to that singular note
to the only language
I had left in me

“play me somethin sad”
again
the same patient confession
markin time like a heartbeat
that has no purpose

I turned slightly
and caught her gaze
across my shoulder
and whispered across the quiet
“why don’t you play me somethin”

she abandoned her book
and approached like a summer rain
gentle and inevitable
light clingin to her edges
as if tryin to protect her from my darkness

shadows slid out of her way
somethin warm in her approach
pushin them aside
as if they knew they had no place
bein where her footsteps fell

she moved behind me
her presence a shelter
her hand found its way to mine
her breath poetry against my ear
“how bout this?”

she pressed against the same note
somehow pushin life into it
then planted her lips
into a soft kiss against my neck
where pulse meets desire

and I must say
it was the most beautiful song
I have ever heard
a symphony in a single touch
the universe in one note