What a What a strangling to be caught in To be exiled To be stuck in with Vienna so near Yet so far from the ear What a strange and sum To be old while to be so young To have sung before a word To be To be to fail To be To love but to be so To trust and to be so To mourn, forlorn, to be from you for another who suffers no grief To curse God, lightning And to still be To in this room, now too rich to afford To hear armies of bang at the door Always for more And to have nothing to sell could help Except for the Steinway that in the corner
For Arthur it all came too To the scales in every key To the etudes and the suites The nocturnes and The To the sonatas, minuets, and symphonies To the truth fits and starts To strike the middle F like it's an arrow through the To wing the hand like a dove
(the peaceful flutter of a dove) And with left a shove
(some moments will demand a shove) To gently yet relentless with a steady foot upon the pedal And to clench the iron first the velvet glove To to whisper and to scream (the whisper the scream) To let each finger breathe (no, lives unless it breathes) To burn, to worship, to To a question with a pinky on a key To flee, to fight, to To in air solid underneath To rap those heavy knuckles on the gate to til there's nothing to Achieve, but To go retrieve the length of hidden in the cabinet To metamorphasize the twisted rope unto an To lay the lazy C upon the wooden floor to rest To send the end the top and bend the C into an S To curve the beneath the S to turn the tangle to a B To hug the wretched around the fibers suffocatingly To wrap again to again to give the coil seven loops To penetrate the hoop To tug the loose through To yank the knot until it's for the job
it's got to do To toss the braid above the ceiling and to affix the noose To bid adieu to all of you
until there's nothing to do but Climb the To the collar the edge To into the air