Almost always it is widows
trying the windchimes.
From technique you can tell
who played tetherball
and which ones flattered
men in uniform, brushing
their shirt fronts free of crumbs.
A few pretend they are there
to buy. Methodical as hand models,
they lift the price tags tied
to bamboo chandeliers
before filling the store
with reports of puppet kendo.
Others start small, browsing
a finger across pipes
sawed from dollhouse organs.
And then there are those
who look both ways before
they swing floating smoke stacks
with whole belfries for echoes.
Sometimes, one says, it’s a relief
being unable to predict
the magnitude of the sound
you’re about to set ringing.
Jane Zwart teaches at Calvin University, where she also co-directs the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly, and Ploughshares, as well as other journals and magazines.
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