Friday, February 03, 2012

Flutes In Space! Or: Landscape With Giant Moth





Mothra and the Twin Fairies
by Jonathan Case






Someday I’m going to meet beautiful, tiny
Japanese women who sing songs for Mothra and
I want to be able to play and sing along.

I’ve met women who aren’t beautiful, tiny
Japanese women who sing songs for Mothra but
I’m never able to convince myself they’re real.






In a spacecraft orbiting a planet
there’s no gravity and a flute will float
until someone grabs it and starts playing.

That’s not science fiction. Flutes have floated
while in orbit and so have flute players.


I might be wrong, but I don’t imagine
Ian Anderson ever imagined
he’d play a flute duet with a woman
in a space station orbiting the Earth.

We know what we are, not what we might be.

We know today, tomorrow is a dream.

I can imagine two tiny women
from Japan singing to a giant moth.

I can imagine myself performing
along with them on guitar or keyboard.

If the real future is more fantastic
than what is in our imagination—
Ian Anderson did play a duet
with a woman playing flute in orbit—
not one second I invest practicing
scale construction and chord voicings ever
will be wasted. My imagination
starts with tiny women and giant moths.

We know what we are, not what we might be.

We know today, tomorrow is a dream.

Did a real Molly Malone ever push
her wheelbarrow through the streets of Dublin
while singing about what she was selling?

A woman astronaut did play her flute
from a space station orbiting the Earth.

Songs for giant moths. We practice today
so we can face the music tomorrow.




























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