moment

moment
to Frank Le Baige
18 april 2013, bucklands beach

a young guy
in a windbreaker
looking out at
the setting sun
on that shore
in the wind
that buffeted
him hands in
pocket brought
you to mind
and that
strain of
sombre strings
from the car
radio, the
classical station
Gustav Mahler
something that
only held
together in
this moment
a tear on
the cheek
that you could
even say shone
in that sun
gold bound
in shadow.

Acknowledgements to poetry.org.nz where this poem was first posted in 2016.
Copyright © 2016 Peter Le Baige. All Rights Reserved

Click on the link above to hear a reading of the poem. The accompanying music is from the opening movement (Andante comodo) of Gustav Mahler’s 9th Symphony in a live performance here by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein.