Nocturne in Black and Gold, Falling Rocket (1875)
by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
You stood before me
Master of your art
I stood before you
Bewitched, gaping.
With long slender fingers
You crafted for me
Whole worlds
in a bubble.
Of bubble,
whole worlds.
Believe me, when I say they were
Worlds singing -
with tunes most tender
Luminous -
with daubs of thick paint
Soaring -
with words sprouting wings.
Oh, to hold them in my hands
To press them to my ears
To peer through them all!
We levitated together,
These bubbles and I,
For several light years.
Who knew,
(Did you?)
they would pop.
Each one,
One
by
one.
With a shatter so sharp
Strings cut
I fall headlong
(Do you?)
A dawdle of a fall
With echoes of sweet bird and far-off song.
