Steady Fingers, Cold Hands

King Canute is one of my favorite historical figures. Look him up, and what he did at the edge of the waves. Also, this poem is based on the painting "The Old Guitarist" by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1903.

 Steady Fingers, Cold Hands

 

It was a harsh light

That held him tight-fisted glistening,

Cold-lipped eternal

Blue in its frost fingers;

And though his hands shivering along the strings

Sent penetrating vibrations humming inward

 Until everything became flat again;

And though passing Parisians and he shared

A common icy breath and snowy step:

He never claimed to be one of them.

 

He might have been Canute, the Old King who tried

To command the heart breaker-waves to cease;

But now the waves, the straight faced blue waves,

They wet the bottom of his guitar and splashed broken,

Frozen, eternally humming in tune across his forgiveness fingers.

 

And so when he looked up, pale eyes silent,

His hands played frostbitten on

The young man who was entering the café,

Made rosy-cheek heart-warmed,

And held up by the life-raft buoy of a crinkled love

Letter held hope-clenched in his hand, wrinkled.

The old man strummed on bluely,

Listening to the unending waves. 

 

The flash and steam of hot coffee, swirling.

The clack and clatter of dishes and hopes, light.

The scrape of chairs, the deep breath:

The old man waited, humming as he strummed.

The warm glance fired upon by hostile words, crashing.

The old man knew all these sounds quite well,

Especially the echoing crack and shatter;

The eddying clicks and snaps of machinery, whirling.

The fervor-crinkled letter, open-arms tumbling

Into in the sea.

 

The young man stumbled out into the cold, lost.

His footing was unsure, dizzy,

At war with the very ground.

Out of step, he staggered across the street

Through the warm tide, crossways,

Bumping into no one, the hot sounds of the café receding.

He stopped at the foot of the only man watching him.

And the old man, his steady, wave tugging fingers slowly played on.

And on,

And on.

Reviews

[Hi]

Very descriptive story and i enjoyed reading it... Keep up the good work!