A Ballad Cantata For Audrey Kessedjian
Audrey Kessedjian
I find myself alone at midnight, outside
And find a living heart beating on the ground
Pathetic and alone, I kneel at its side
It makes a pitiful almost crying sound
It sings in its blood of a loss vast and wide
“Tell me who lost you?” I ask at last
But the heart keeps beating, its pain contagious
I feel the sensation reach my own chest
Then I feel the void as I am somehow less
It is my own heart ripped from my living breast
I reach for the lost organ to take it back
But it is a phantom, the ground is empty
My chest is hollow, I am an empty sack
The night is cold, and no warm blood fills me
I look around and my feet have left no tracks
Pale glowing fog illuminates where I am
I hear then a voice in the thick fog, distant
Song of deep longing, breaking waves on a dam
Urging me to embrace, to run, but I can’t
I am too weak to move so much as a gram
I am frozen by the sound of that remote voice
Then… whisper in my ear, beating of my heart
I can breathe, a woman’s fingers in gentle noise
With vocal touch have caressed me to a start
To hear Audrey Kessedjian…then die in poise.