For so many years I wrapped this clapper
In soft quilting, to dampen the music to others,
Waiting to learn at least a chord.
And only alone would I ring out:
A single tone and true, I lingered in the air.
At first I knew no other way to chime but with the wind.
I would greet each day with a tune
As I bathed in the morning breeze
And threw back to the rising sun
Some of the gold it scattered like seeds.
A single tone and true I lingered in the air.
Once in a crescendo of clamor
I hammered against this dome of fate,
Trying to change the laws of acoustics.
But when the clanging subsided,
A single tone and true, I lingered in the air.
No longer stifling harmonics
That jangle after me
And vibrate in the eyes of those I pass:
A single tone and true, I linger in the air.
I have at length resigned myself to a monotone,
But the meter I control, correcting the tempo
Of my life to one believed more perfect.
But somehow always returning to this comfortable chaos,
A single tone and true, I linger in the air.
Sometimes beating myself against the anvil
of anger, sometimes love,
A single tone and true, I linger in the air.
