“Late Sonata”
by Aseem Kaul

Because the blood
is its own architecture
and the purpose of music
is to enclose the silence,
not fill it.

Because in Beethoven
the structures of collapse
are various and other,
bridges of thrilled sound
suspended in violent air.

Because we are unprepared
for the emptying of impulse,
for the precise cloud
of this feeling
with which the pianos touch us.

Because the night is there
for the stars
to meditate on
and the leaves exist
for the wind to destroy.

Because what shatters here
is neither despair
nor vertigo
but the pure exhilaration
of being allowed to fall.