Elevator Music
A tune with no more substance than the air,
performed on underwater instruments,
is proper for this short lift from the earth.
It hovers as we draw into ourselves
and turn our reverent eyes toward the lights
that count us to our various destinies.
We’re all in this together, the song says,
and later we’ll descend. The melody
is like a name we don’t recall just now
that still keeps on insisting it is there.
by Henry Taylor
from Poetry 180
Random House 2003