Reciprocity

If it is my mother’s right to choose
whether my music shall live or die,

as the first rehearsal of my symphony
tunes its strings inside her womb,

rhythm, melody and harmony
rising from the silence into composition;

then it is my right to choose
whether her music shall live or die,

as her last unconscious song
rasps and shudders on the hospice bed,

harmony, melody and rhythm
falling into the silence of decomposition.

Fred Longworth