Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, J S Bach

This half-hour alone with you, with Bach,
the well-made coffin, the wreath
laid bright above your silence — deeper
now than those you used to keep;

age had unravelled you, diminished
your dreams, withered muscle, bone, tendon,
seeped into your lungs — each breath burned, chewed
small sad holes inside your head;

music fills the room — long sombre notes
weave sound to solemn fugue; the ’cello
mourns — resonant, bereft; the burden
begins to ease

Helen Overell