soundtrack

We're alive in lofty stratospheres
With currents that keep us afloat
Beyond the reaches of outside noise
-- with only this soundtrack playing
around our ears and through our chests.

Un-played scenes flicker across my eyes,
Shot with an old scratched-lens camera
In the style of faded prairie dreams
-- the tape ticking in the background,
sound reel to my silent laughter.

The sunlight flashes haphazardly,
Behind your head and through your hair,
Streaks that open and close in your form
-- the black-out of this stop-action
cinematography of love.

All bathed in old film candy-bright blues
A color aura that seeps in
And stains my lungs so word-song comes out
-- in music notes and baby birds
of magenta and kelly green.

So we catch them with butterfly nets
To take to the top of the hill
And release, but they don't fly away
-- they settle in the tree branches
and serenade us while we sleep.