Marilyn Humbert

Music by Ricco

a sonata
drifts on the starry river
farewelling night
this small boy’s song
welcomes a new day

He loves to sing. Rhythms fill his mind, vibrating through his body. 

He tells me the insistent beat distracts him.  At home when asked to do chores, he sometimes doesn’t hear mum and dad speak.  At school it makes the other kids cross and the teachers impatient.

Why can’t everyone hear the melodies bouncing between his ears?

his angel arias
fill me with wonder
this angry boy
in a regimented world
always alone on the playground

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About the Author

Marilyn Humbert lives in the Northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Her tanka and haiku appear in international and Australian journals, anthologies, and online. Her free-verse poems have been awarded prizes in competitions, published online, and in anthologies.