Wrench rests on felt where hammers used to fall
The city hums below the window frame
You lift the lid and let the cold air crawl
Across the soundboard calling out your name
Middle C remembers every hand
That shaped the scale in choir lofts above
You find the beat where frequencies expand
And let the interval become your love
You turn the pin until the wire sings
Morning slips its fingers through the strings
Every third a prayer you half recall
Alto breath in light that climbs the wall
First octave clean the unison holds true
Two strings align like voices in a pew
Third string resists a half-step sharp and blue
You breathe the way the nuns taught you to do
The octave stretches pure and wide and deep
A major third blooms golden in the grain
You taste the comma that the tempered keep
And wonder if the perfect lies in pain
You turn the pin until the wire sings
Morning slips its fingers through the strings
Every third a prayer you half recall
Alto breath in light that climbs the wall
Light shifts across the pinblock golden rod
Each turn a micro-dose of gravity
The fifths beat slow the fourths beat hard at God
You measure holiness in frequency
You turn the pin until the wire sings
Morning slips its fingers through the strings
Every third a prayer you half recall
Alto breath in light that climbs the wall
Sirens wail three floors down in Doppler red
A bus sighs flat against the curb's cold steel
You tune the upper register ahead
Where overtones spin out a silver reel
You turn the pin until the wire sings
Morning slips its fingers through the strings
Every third a prayer you half recall
Alto breath in light that climbs the wall
Last unison locks like a breath released
The action settles regulated quiet
You close the lid on all that's been increased
And carry silence down the narrow stair
You turn the pin until the wire sings
Morning slips its fingers through the strings
Every third a prayer you half recall
Alto breath in light that climbs the wall
Morning temperament holds in the wire
You tune the day to what the light requires
