Aria

How They Rehearsed Regret

She shakes
Don’t Don’t Don’t,
Referring apparently
To his playing the one song
From old sheet music with
Chords transposed in pencil
From the tryout days
When her belly was against his back
Her polished nails on his shoulders
Each then thinking of her breath,
Of her posture, of her “placement”
Their future then trembling together
Already encased
In their brief strange crush of love.