Word of Mouth

by David Chorlton / September 8th, 2019

Did you hear the news? someone asks,
and someone else nods
while pressing his hands deep inside
his pockets like two mice
burrowing against the cold.
It hangs in the air

like the music in a violin string
waiting to be released.
I found out just now, couldn’t believe it.
The other man fiddles
with the lint between his fingers
and stares into the distance

while frost collects
on the empty staves of musical notation
which describe the silence
that follows a passing train.

David Chorlton lived in Vienna for most of the 1970s before moving to Phoenix. It was an exchange of wind and rain for the desert heat and a cultural shift. He has a non-fiction book published this year that tells the story of a 1961 murder near Vienna, for which one of his cousins was wrongly convicted. That is "The Long White Glove," from New Meridian Arts. Read other articles by David.

This article was posted on Sunday, September 8th, 2019 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.