for JJ
In the shadows before caffeine and light
Strange creatures assemble in black coats
On the wrong side of the city, at night
Bending the darkness with their sweet notes
They astonish with their lines and chords
They lend us poetry without words
They are the rule-breakers, almost foolhardy
See them skip recklessly across the wire
Throw shapes with their shadow puppetry
Or pass their bare skin through the fire
We admire the illusion. Is it trickery?
Fortune favours those who are brave
They know, with mathematical certainty
When to push, when to hold back with their art
Their artistry has no boundaries
We’re not like them. We could not scale the height
Of these sky dancers. See them gamble with eternity
In deep cellars, where candles are burned
They are the poets of the cold,
thin air
They fill the darkness with
their luminous sound
They need no net. They know that
one is there.
