Poem by David P. Miller

Double Concerto

Do your best to conceal yourself
in the handicapped stall end of the row
off come the pants and long underwear
the second pair of socks
then pants back on and boots laced up
because you’re only changing your clothes
here in Symphony Hall
two stalls away from somebody’s suit
half an hour before ignition
because it’s fifteen degrees
and you carry your day
in a bag on your back
your dress-in-layers
and zip-lock pharmacopoeia:
              cough drops, Tylenol
              and cold medicine Jimmy dropped in the mail slot
              as thanks for those long-term no-interest loans.

Now you and she are harmonized
carry-in bags stowed snug
beneath centenarian balcony chairs
pianissimo winds rise evanescent
almost beyond perception
just when two other music lovers
conclude their pre-concert prep
banging down steps, creaking seats,
de-loading their feet, shuffling their stuff
right in time to accompany
the ascending mist
of the double concerto.

Artwork © Allison Goldin

David P. Miller’s poems have appeared in print in Meat for Tea, Stone Soup Presents and Durable Goods, and online in the Muddy River Poetry Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, and the Boston and Beyond Poetry Blog. Work is forthcoming in Ibbetson Street. His three “micro-chapbooks” are available from the Origami Poems Project website. His chapbook, The Afterimages, will be published by Červená Barva Press in Spring 2014. He is a semi-regular on the open mike at Stone Soup in Cambridge, visits with the Bagel Bards in Somerville, and studies with Tom Daley.

Allison Goldin is an artist living in Cambridge. Her work is a collection of spontaneous drawings from the imagination. The most common link throughout her art are the semi-recognizable creatures scattered amongst and bringing together the surrounding doodles. She is currently studying Illustration at The School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.