Scenes from the Journey: "Making harmony out of death rattles" (a line from Barry Dempster's "Hard Song")

Sunday, January 15, 2017

You can make harmony out of anything

if you set your mind to it.

You can walk past the ce-ment mix-er (putty-putty)

and hum a note in harmony with its endless racket

(they daren't turn those things off, you know, or the cement will set, effectively ending the mixer's

useful life).

You can add your sound to the noise of the subway,

the traffic,

even the jackhammer,

and the result is a harmony that brings your life together.

But I'd never thought of making harmony

from death rattles.

I'll be adding this to my imaginings

of how my death will be:

I will instruct that little band of survivors,

those attending the event,

to hum and tone and wail at the top of their lungs.

I'll urge them to add their living selves,

through the sounds of their bodies,

to the rattle of my dying breaths.

Thus will we face together the opening gate.

Thus will I be accompanied to the threshold.

Scenes from the Journey