Aaron Copland

Every screen in the house

shows mid-twentieth black

and white broadcasts on mute.

My tascam plays Copland

now in a Bernstein past

digital but still

with a true-type

soul

and simple gifts.

I’ve got those transfigured

empire blues. It feels like

the end of something good

but circles have no end

just reruns projected up, out

and on to a trillion night-sky suns.

L. Ward Abel’s work has appeared in hundreds of journals (Rattle, Versal, The Reader, Worcester Review, Riverbed Review, Honest Ulsterman, others), including nominations for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and he is the author of three full collections and ten chapbooks of poetry, including his latest collection, The Width of Here (Silver Bow, 2021). He is a reformed lawyer, he writes and plays music, and he teaches literature. Abel resides in rural Georgia.