Sound Check
A sound check ignites a flame
In a distance of incendiary nights
Back and forth the ringing breaks
As the dawn announces a new appetite
Hendrix and Joplin overdose and die
Others overdose and fly
Pour it slowly little one
As the thirst for more brings a new might
Like a shooting star, coming from under
Never faltering, never blinking, never done
Till it grows in a roaring thunder
And the little one awakens with dreams undone
In the realm of her senses
People gather, ponder, and offer wonders
While at the banks of the river
She bathes in waters clear and humble
A deafening silence sticks like glue
For an hour, a day, or two
Cheats the dash, the charm, and the lure
While she silently mixes the brew
Dark here, light there, and flair everywhere
Time to reverse, converse or despair
When will they meet?
In a day, a month, but not in a year
Ramzi Albert Rihani is a Lebanese American writer. His poems have appeared in several publications in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, India, and China, including Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Backchannels Journal, Discretionary Love, Fine Lines Magazine, Indelible Literature and Arts Journal, ArLiJo, Poetic Sun, Last Leaves Magazine, Poetry Potion, Impspired, Flora Fiction, Ephemeral Elegies, In Parentheses, and The Silent Journey Anthology. He received the 2024 Polk Street Review first-place poetry award. He is a published music critic. He published a travel book, “The Other Color – a Trip Around the World in Six Months.” He lives in the Washington, DC area.
