STRING QUARTET NO. 4

I sit on my patio

listening to Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 4 in C minor

as the sun melds into the ionosphere,

dusk brushing the treetops

Unseen starlings chirp in counterpoint

to the morose movements,

violins evocatively weeping and celebrating

the composer’s vision

Lightning bugs spark in lockstep to the meter,

their jittery flight outlined in the gasping light.

Crickets, hunkered down in the shrubbery like insurgents,

provide the choral flourish that encapsulates

the flawless collaboration between Beethoven

and mid-summer dusk