Brianna L. Noll
Lebewohl
sustained long enough to inspire
this programmatic Sonata, a narrative
of farewell and return, of Vienna
with, and without, one harmonic soul.
I feel your farewell each time,
each blessed time this Lebewohl
plays; it sustains you, or, at least,
a view of you from behind,
shuffling down that pebbled street
kicking one stone for each minute we'd miss.
Abwesenheit.
I, too, feel the absence
of counterweight
on the right side of the bench,
for you always played the Primo
of a four-hand piece.
This lop-sided seat
manages to hold its footing.
to keep me suspended long enough
to play a lengthy ostinato intro
to your return.
Wiedersehn,
this third movement, was long-
anticipated. I thought my bass
would forever be without your treble,
this bench forever unbalanced.
Archduke Rudolph returned to his teacher,
that head-shaker, wand-waver, genius composer;
I guess I feared home would grow
too distant, dissonant.
But you, too, returned—the Sonata finished—
and clenched a jar of tear-stained, sea strewn stones.