swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

Pre
Kathryn Lasseter

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Pre

A preamble precedes
all manner of manifestations.

We need preambles.

A preamble enables us to proceed–
foot forward, first gear.

The Constitution has one,
its best bit, perhaps.

Green rooms offer

a metaphysical space
of becoming–
airy, spacious,
becalmed by leafy foliage.

Then how is a Chopin prelude

an entity unto itself,
not a beginning only, not a
blueprint to a larger endeavor,
beginning, middle, and end, all
held close in succinct totality?

Yet if, miraculously,

I could play Chopin’s
24 preludes, in
all the keys of life,
as they were meant to be,
infusing technique and feeling,

I would be prepared and
prepped to move on to
nocturnes, even études.

The Revolutionary Étude—
I like the sound of that.

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Kathryn Lasseter is a recovering academic, now retired and living in Oregon.  She has poems in various journals, including Buffalo+8, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Cypress Review, BarBar, Heimat Review, Winged Penny Review, and dadakuku.