Tonight's Poet Corner: Takamine Reminders

Takamine Reminders
by Belinda Roddie

I'm not used to the throbbing
in my fingertips anymore. Calluses
have weakened throughout my
personal history: An erosion
of the temperament I've indented
within my own skin.

Now, I touch flesh to string
and let steel sink its teeth in
and hold on fast. Music's jaws
will release me eventually, but
deep down, I hope it doesn't stay
in its burrow for too long.

I feel free in the original, the
Shakespearean and the lyrical.
I play songs I wrote back when I
was still demonstrably naive. I wonder
if and when I'll write something
more indicative of my present,
but for the moment, let me

reminisce about days in which
I was a composer. Days in which
I was in a ragtag band. Days in which
clumsy melodies were the closest
thing to godliness I ever had.