A Deaf Refrain

How do you play a melody
deep inside the words
to sing each letter off the page
and free them like a bird

How do you write the lyrics
to a mute and silent song
that lives inside the spaces
where true music’s never gone

How do you play a rhapsody
of couplets in your mind
releasing subject-verbs to be
forever to unwind

How do you pen a chorus heard
with what the verse has shown
and give each note a deaf refrain
—within a single poem

(The New Room: May, 2022)