Calling

Jessica Bakar

After D.A. Powell

What is language outside the body but dry echo, reflected want. 

For what is body outside voice but quiet unheld hands. 

And voice, stripped of syllables, what is sound beyond language. 

For the caesura before and after a clearing throat is language itself. 

What is white noise of laughter but baseline, steady heartbeat. 

And heartbeat, what is more than nature’s metronome. 

For what is instrument but body, and orchestra but polyphony. 

What is want without body but language without voice, 

empty curves of letters containing nothing but the sweet sound of silence. 

Then, symphonies.