The difference of touch: in D minor KV 466 and Variations on a theme of Paganini

 
     the robin hops from the tips of the rose bush
                                                                              spilling snow dust
sprinkling skeins of early dew
                                                                                                             dusting with its uppity tail fan
                                                               a caterpillar
                                                      softly dousing concertina
 
                 then it trips up the clothesline
                                                      stops and grips it in its claws
sways and balances with its tail fanning out
 
          chirps clucks tweets
                                     and repeats itself
all the way down again
                                     and up the scale                 
 
   comes back once more to skip a note or two
 
                  and tumbles
      sweeps past the old toy bicycle leaning against the wire fence
 
 
the claw marks hardly visible on the spray of frost-like snow on the balustrade
 
  light  ephemeral  peripatetic
 
  the dulcet flexions rising and falling on the tympana without breath of motion
 
                                             or vibration
 
crisp  colliding notes  rising and falling
 
as the first tentative drops of drizzle before the rain
 
                  the robin gone to sing full throttle on wing     
 
 
© T. Wignesan, Paris, 1997; from the collection: “Poems Omega-Plus”, Paris, 2005.