DECRESCENDO

 

Joe Kenney

 

 

 I'm just a starving college student, bro;

 So, don't you like your Christmas gift?  I put

 The car in park and squinted at the snow

 That lay in mounds beside her frozen street.

 My sister's taste in music, on cassette,

 She'd found unwrapped but untouched on my back seat

 In March.  I played the tape before she said

 Another word.  As we drove into town 

 Its bass and treble sidled through my head

 Inertly, while she bounced in syncopation.

 

 It isn't her distractions I dislike;

 Rather, knowing any compilation,

 Album, or otherwise recorded note

 Now leaves me numb.  While once I memorized

 Each tune with joy, now I have ennui down rote.