Poetry Fiction Issue 2005 Atlantic Monthly

by Erica Funkhouser

The Pianist Upstairs

Article Tools

E-mail Article
Printer Format

The world's at war and he breaks into Brahms
tonight--an intermezzo one might hum
to lull a child or coax to life numb
nerves after a round of deafening bombs.

The stairwell's dark and cold, and still I sit
and listen as the music circulates.
I don't know what to do; the day's debates
don't change a thing. We hit. They hit. We hit.

My country's ruin'd choir resounds with lies,
and still my song will only come from words.
Upstairs, a man devotes a tender hour
to teasing out sweet hidden harmonies
that populate the hallway with white birds.
How wasted here, their pure expressive power.

Erica Funkhouser teaches writing at MIT. Her most recent collection of poems is Pursuit (2003).

Article Tools

E-mail Article
Printer Format

What do you think? Discuss this article in Post & Riposte.

Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter.

From the Archives

The Accident

(December 1995)
A poem by Erica Funkhouser.

From Atlantic Unbound

Owl Pellet

(November 1992)
A poem by Erica Funkhouser.

To the Animal in the Hole

(June 1999)
A poem by Erica Funkhouser.

Woodcock

(May 1999)
A poem by Erica Funkhouser.

India Cotton Shirt

(October 1996)
A poem by Erica Funkhouser.


Name

Address 1

Address 2

City

State Zip

Email

Atlantic Voices

Against A Unity Ticket Read more

09 May 2008 3:56 P.M.

Public Opinion on the Court Read more

09 May 2008 3:23 P.M.

The Evangelical Manifesto Read more

09 May 2008 12:39 P.M.

I think I'm crazy too Read more

09 May 2008 2:09 P.M.

Three More Superdelegates Read more

09 May 2008 3:34 P.M.

New, "official" GTD blog site Read more

09 May 2008 10:42 A.M.

Hezbollah and its Apologists Read more

09 May 2008 12:16 P.M.

Pause Read more

02 May 2008 7:21 P.M.