Main T.o.C. Door #1 Door #2 Door #3 Contest Gallery
Taylor Graham
Stopped In Traffic
Across From New Construction


Intersection E. Bidwell & Iron Point,
the first notes of Mozart's Horn Concerto
No. 2 in E Flat Major twine with Wednesday
blue sky and a weft of breeze
to wind a lyric stream through rebar trellises
across the way, what was vacant lot
a moment ago, it seems, in January. Now
it's April almost noon, as a black-
bird flashes epaulets red as stoplight winging
his way upwind against the northbound
lunch flow. We're paused here in our brief
morning, as Mozart sweetens sound
that rises strand on strand to join
a horsetail cloud just passing overhead,
a shiver in the silver under-leaves of olive
trees allowed to live
at pavement's edge, a counterpoint
of horn and violin and sunlight, with
a sudden solo horn behind me as the light
goes green, and chords still twine
themselves with rebar waiting
for its concrete skin, all this music building
into pillar with a bit of breeze.
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