Today I will watch you hold the violin

bow so delicately, and every harsh word

I’ve said will become the shrill

sound of learning

how to place the hair between the

bridge and the fingerboard.

Your face becomes the muscle

memory I will tap out on the

tablecloth when everything else

is forgotten.

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ALIX KLINGENBERG is a poet, artist, and Unitarian Universalist spiritual director. Her forthcoming collection Bread Sex Trees will be published with Central Avenue Publishing in October of 2023. Alix lives near Boston, MA with her family. She is queer and polyamorous and writes on themes of love & loss, sex & commitment, healing and family dynamics.