Bartolomeo
he woke to a howl
he saw that Italy was in Night
So he lit a candle
starred through his window
saw Women in love
Dogs wandering
a man playing a Violin
the color of every woman's hair
as she crossed him
Bartolomeo
stood up from his tiny bed and put on his shoes
opened his wooden door and looked over Venice
the air was thick with sleep
thin with open Eyes
he stepped out into the Night
crossing a river
where a Frog laughed
where a Bird chirped
He was headed to a ball
filled with beautiful women
the richest of wine a man could taste
He crossed the river
passed a few homes:
children sleeping
mothers fathers love making
drunks drinking
birds flying to their nests
Bartolomeo
decided to take a short cut to the Ball
went into the woods
where he got lost
The sun came up
hungry
thirsty and dry to the skin
Night came again
Bartolomeo
kept walking
following the smells and sounds of homes
Then an Angel showed her self to him
The Angel had said she was “Mousai”
Bartolomeo asked The Angel if she was the Angel of Death
She laughed
saying
“Quite the opposite”
and she whispered into both of his ears
fell to his knees
and collapsed onto his belly
When he woke
he was back in his bed
With the Violin player out of his window
and the women in love
the dog wandering
with the Ball still in order
Then he had the strangest urge
he looked into his breast pocket and found a drawing of a strange looking box with legs and strings
it read
'gravicembalo col piano e forte'
So he took it to a Violin maker
Bartolomeo showed him the paper
the Violin maker asked him what it was
and Bartolomeo explained to him that the Angel of Death came to see him in his dreams and left this in his pocket
that the Angel of Death whispered a strange Tune in his ear
which made him fall to his knees and belly
He told the Violin maker that this is the Tune you heard before your Death
The Violin maker
was cautious at first
so Bartolomeo offered him gold to build it
So the violin maker did so
When Bartolomeo's project was finished
He trusted it to be the voice of Death
that any man who heard it
was to die
So he took it out to the middle of the Forest
thick with trees
Pressed a key
the hairs on his neck stood
he waited for her
for Death
She never came
So he pressed another key
a slightly different pitch
Then another
it was thicker
more hollow
and to the far left
was higher
sharper than the others
then Bartolomeo ran his fingers across all of the keys
his eyes closed in fright
in ecstasy
Bartolomeo
left it there
for the night
and went back to his little home
and slept
in his Dream
a Tune played
it played through his bones
his hair
the eye lashes on his skull
the thin layer of skin on his lips
the palms of his hands
Throat
Stomach and Legs
The next day he stayed inside
worried that Death was outside his door
He waited for the moon to be dominate
He entered the woods
To find his musical Death Siren
Still there
And he sat at this Death Siren
Pressed a key
The Night seemed to hover over him
Like the lights of a Play
Like the Rifles of an execution
Like the Lips of a Woman
Like the Eyes of a child
He pressed another
Then he remembered the song in his Dream
and Pressed another key
Closing his eyes
he heard the song behind his eye lids
on the lobes of his ears
the end of his nose
and the tips of his fingers
And he played the Tune
What he thought that Death
had whispered into his ear
and down his spine like dripping wax on a tree stump
The Trees bent closer to hear
The Roses
The Birds
The Snakes
The Rats
The Moon
The Def
The Blind
The Mad
The Moth
The Dog
The Feline
Bent closer into the night
and gazed into the Forest
The Night was filled with his Tune
a mix of sorrow
of lasting hope
of a lover walking into the arms of Eternity's Death Canoe
of Sunrise
of starvation cured by bread and wine and cheese and meat
of *** and lust and love and lips
of death of tears of lonely nights
of war veterans
of sailors of painters of mothers of fathers
a mix of
Death and the smell of coffee
of
A woman and a lake
of
The Fountain of Youth and cigarettes
of
Adam and Eve
of
Insomnia and a runny nose
of
Waking up
and Falling asleep.