Am I presumptive
To plod through each variation
No Glenn Gould,
No architecture of sound?
The gentle placement of the hands;
The variable shift that blurs
All distinction between
Accompanying
And singing.
Each varied tempo
Not so much chosen for comfort
As inherent.
Each sitting
I play the repeats
Or not.
Warned from the taint of romance—
“This is not a Strauss song.”
But why
Must the variety of my song,
At this late juncture,
Be idiomatic
At a concert for myself?
Earned by maturity,
Invariably
My own Goldberg Variations.
At day’s end,
A reward,
An unassigned task
Varies towards completion.
