I was eating minestrone <br />when I heard something fall <br />outside my apartment window. <br />Too dark to see much <br />but a pair of hairy arms slam shut <br />a window on the third floor <br />of the building opposite mine. <br /> <br />In the morning all I found <br />was a bent clarinet on cement, <br />dented horn and pawn shop sticker <br />saying nine dollars. <br /> <br />It reminded me of the French explorer <br />Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. <br />He too had dreams, set sail <br />up the St. Lawrence, looking for China, <br />and wound up settling in Detroit instead. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />(1976)<br /><br />Mike Finley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-clarinet-is-a-difficult-instrument/
