At home it’s usually quiet.
You hear an occasional motor,
bird squabble at the feeder,
occasional drone of a plane.
Today in town
sound overwhelms me
with an opus of engines.

Power saws squeal a descending scale
of metal against metal,
making music with the bass notes
of diesel trucks
and their staccato beeps.
A plane flies overhead
introduces middle notes
to the soprano saw
and the diesel motor.

I sit quietly in class –
enjoy Abbie’s perfume,
top note of jasmine,
the soprano to lily at mid-range
and bass notes of amber,
all connecting with the staccatos
of her Braille machine.

###

Born in England, Christine Valentine settled in Birney, Montana and worked for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe for 25 yrs. She has a Human Services degree from Chief Dull Knife College. Christine writes poetry and non-fiction. She is recently published in Emerald Coast Review.

“Afternoon Music” originally appeared in Helen: A Literary Magazine, Issue 2, April 2015, and has been chosen by Helen: A Literary Magazine as one of their six Pushcart Prize nominees.