Poetry/ Chris Stroffolino

Backwards on Tree Street

for Sonic Boom (Peter Kemper)

32nd notes in the background and 16th in the foreground

in the bassist’s octaves & rhythmic fifths

set the stage: a tablecloth unfolding, stretching 

like a roadscape in an ancient video game,

ears steer the wheel of a desert highway going west–

the tighter the grip the straighter the line

feet pump the gas pedal to zigzag through lonely 

truckers pulsing towards the sunset

on the fringes of all this space, birds for staphs, 

wires on poles rush backwards, 

then slow as we rise the leafy rocks

and the road narrows & curves for the forest

in the seaside fog till the sun breaks through

in the propulsive harmonium bubbles through a tunnel 

in a skyscraper at Koyaanisqatsi speed till stuck in a jam

playing horns & balafons on the back of a pickup 

growing legato legs for staccato arms as engines 

grow lungs till the drummer leaves us to inch the truck along