AFTERNOON CADENZA by Brenton Booth

Wednesday afternoon
dreaming of beautiful
women in short skirts
though Beethoven and
a day off from work
seem good enough:
if we all just accepted
what we now had as
enough—
the economy would fail
and people would flourish,
I still think of those women
though
even now that the cadenza
has begun and its Nigel
Kennedy behind the notes:
I suppose no one is perfect
and that’s what keeps
everything as it is.