Hazel Hall
The Messenger
She bows gracefully and lifts flute to lips. An Inca goddess breathes her magic. Immediately the concert space becomes a forest filled with birds. She’s calling them across bamboo; music hardly heard then becoming louder as she creates the songs each species knows. Listen! Hear the sudden rush of wings, accompanied by music from steaming jungles to the cold, white Altiplano. Can you hear the feathered flutes? The ocellated tapacullo of Colombian forests. The red-headed barbet from Ecuador. They come, as her fingers flirt with thrilling sounds. Two plain-tailed wrens fly in from Peru to trill duets. A yellow rumped siskin joins in. The air is alive with the trembling of her quena’s breath in chitters, twitters, warbles and calls. My secret self becomes one with the birds.
Now her zampoña panpipes are lisping a well known tune. The drummer joins in on his bombo. People begin singing and clapping in time. I close my eyes and see a huge shadow catching wind drifts. Caught in her rhapsody, my mind soars until the music fades. The audience jumps to its feet in a roar of applause.
cóndor gigantes take me on your flight show me all the bald-headed forests that once rang with song
Note: El Cóndor Pasa was composed by Peruvian songwriter Daniel Alomia Robles in 1913 and popularized by Simon and Garfunkel in 1965.
About the Author
Hazel Hall is a well-published Australian poet, musicologist, and lifelong learner who loves collaborating with other artists. Her latest collections are Step by Step (Picaro Poets 2019), Moonlight Over the Siding (Interactive Press 2019), and Severed Web (Picaro Poets 2020). Her sonnet collection A Hint of Rosemary is forthcoming.