The Music Has Holes in It

but all music has holes in it.

rock plops…..into a pool
ripples spread……..for awhile

between the wickers of a basket……closings
then openings

none with any voice……..but the rock

plops into the pool
pool guzzles it…..delicious low throated gurgle

what does the air feel………above it

child skips a stone into the water
………………………………………it’s gone

then there’s the cackle of a crow…….the long arrogant
wail of a freight train
…………………………passing

this house has holes in it
for looking out……..and in

what is the space……..within

this window has flaws in it
………………………………bubbles

where the glass blower………paused

this heart has a valve in it
a hole……..a slow leak

between seed and seed’s descent
into its instrument

bow scratched across gut strings
fist in the chest………thud
………………………………….and reverberations

this music has holes in it

big enough for a spaceship
for a bomb
for a god to drive through

*Patricia Goedicke is the author of 12 books of poetry, the most recent of which, Copper Canyon's AS EARTH BEGINS TO END, was recognized by the American Library Association as one of the top ten poetry books of the year. Currently she teaches one graduate poetry workshop a year as Professor Emerita in the Creative Writing Program of the University of Montana. She is the recipient of many awards for her poetry, among them Beloit Poetry Journal’s Chad Walsh Poetry Prize for 2002. Recent and forthcoming poems by Goedicke may be seen in Agni, Colorado Review, Gettysburg Review, Hotel Amerika, Volt, and Contemporary Northwest Poets, etc. "The Music Has Holes in It" originally appeared in Square Lake.