Waiting and Finding

Painting by Peppi Elona


"Waiting and Finding"

While he was in kindergarten,
everybody wanted to play the tomtoms
when it came time for that. You had to
run in order to get there first,
and he would not.
So he always had a triangle.
He does not remember
how they played the tomtoms,
but he sees clearly their Chinese look.
Red with dragons front and back
and gold studs around that held
the drumhead tight.
If you had a triangle,
you didn’t really make music.
You mostly waited
while the tambourines and tomtoms
went on a long time. Until
there was a signal for all
triangle people to hit them the right way.
Usually once.
Then it was tomtoms and waiting some more.
But what he remembers
is the sound of the triangle.
A perfect, shimmering sound
that has lasted all his long life.
Fading out and coming again after a while.
Getting lost and the waiting
for it to come again.
Waiting meaning without things.
Meaning love sometimes dying out,
sometimes being taken away.
Meaning that often he lives

silent in the middle of the world’s music.
Waiting
for the best to come again.
Beginning to hear the silence
as he waits.
Beginning to like the silence
maybe too much.


Jack Gilbert

Posted over on Splice Today