the Baffle
  above your heads on the stage
Did Nothing at all tonight to blast
  the coherent tone of your muse-ic
  into any random ineffable.

instead, the Baffle,
Flaunting symmetry in its internal carving
  [visually matching/reminiScent of 
    an Aeolian Harp’s “random” songs],
  Spun a chord of curling tones 
    out Washing over our heads on the dance floor,
to say nothing of what people felt from It 
  further to the sides.

baffled?
not so much either was i 
  from the emotional integrity 
  of the triple touch
  of your harmonies
  as i glanced left:
    my eye seeing blurrily [baffled?] 
      as it looked out the left side
      of the left lens of my glasses
  to see the wash of people facing the stage
  and past them out the window to the ocean
    tide high
  seeing randomly rippled false creek lights 
    glinting in kaleidoscope candle light yellow hues
  backedgrounded by the bottom lit 
    north tower of burrard bridge,
      rock steady;
no, none of this baffled me as your tones
  were the tonic that welcomingly
    embracingly 
  subsumed
  the lights entering my left eye.

baffled, neither, was i 
  when the Baffle above you Spread forth
  your lovely--needed--scramble of the formulaic prison
  of trite musical fluff:
“never be your girl” baffled the idiocy of the expected.

no, the Baffle,
  in your Service,
Fought the baffling
  of the chaotic din of the bar
  and the sweat
  and chatter
  and spilling scotch
  and high dancer
  and [ever?] spurned boyfriends
  and posing pierced debutantes
  and ear-pieced bouncers
  and the circumstantial assaults
    on the sincere attempts
    of an uber-bartender
    to merely pour some shots for the band.

and while the soul
  of the décor of the bar
  endearingly longs to be an okanagan ski chalet,
and the Baffle Announces
  the Offer of tones from your soul,
and while there was no time
  for “time after time”
the blended Resonance of your songs
  Washes through my mind
  even now
    washed in my gratitude
  all the way home.
 

Copyright 2002, Stephen Buckley 
06.01.02, 12:35 - 1:20 am

[cherrybomb cd release party. backstage lounge, arts club theatre, granville island. friday, may 31, 2002.]