A Lesson In Voice

College poem. This is a little indulgent; poetry isn't something you post if you need to be relevant to EVERYONE all the time. But - I've been thinking about this one a lot. It has to do with more than singing. Maybe a fellow poet-singer will understand. ;-)

A LESSON IN VOICE

Where is she hiding - your pixie-soul woman?
When breath came down like a spirit's dream,
did you catch her obsidian eyes in your lungs?
Did you choke on her scarlet ribbon hair?
Did you push her up through your selfish throat
till she crouched in your mouth like the anxious drone
of a dial tone from a broken receiver?

Where does she frolic - your sprite-hearted child?
When first you inhaled her naughty grin,
did she fly through your nose like a ticklish demon?
Did she dance with your whimsical tongue?
Did she scale your cords like the slide on a playground
and shoot head-first through your teeth like a passionate hiccup?

When you have freed your pixie-soul woman
to rock your sprite-hearted child to sleep,
when breath has become like a wise old angel
who lives in your stomach and prays beneath your cheeks...
When you have learned to love the song
till Song is all that is, your droning hiccup tones will own
A Voice.