STRIDES OF MUSIC

by Lucky Labaya 

That music should

pace as slow as possible.

 

That what should sail

into ears are stroked strings

of a guitar.

That haste in it means defiance

rides on its meter—

 

That if it hurries: it isn’t

of the rising dust of stamping feet.

That it isn’t good

for where cartilage narrows.

                   –

What

crawls out of some lips is: so

long it thuds hard and it is

impatient enough to pace

hurriedly, it needn’t be given

a listen.

                   –

What about the ones

that now broaden their cheeks from

years of bowing heads after

NF’s tune found its way

into their headphones?

 

What would have been of

them when they did make yeah

a refrain that overrode their thoughts

as they kept facing the ceiling while

toasting a dice on the floor,

contemplating what a single

squeal could do.

Source: From the Rebel Issue (October 2019)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LUCKY LUBAYA is a poet and fiction writer who writes from Zambia. He pens poems to have a better understanding of the world and to smear different emotions on paper and his word app. If not writing, he spends his time taking a reasonable stroll and finding delight in stuff that fits being art.

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