Tiro De Cuerda

Originally posted 5/28/2010.

Tiro de cuerda: the Spanish term
for the perfect tension
on a guitar string,

the strain that lets it cry,
a tension found one or two
turns of the peg shy of breakage.

More than once I’ve sat in an audience
and seen a player, rock god
or flamenco acolyte, snap a string 

and keep playing,
plotting on the fly a new course
among those remaining,

but have never heard
a recording that included
that sound.  It seems odd: 

that snap
would seem to be
a sound we would adore

as we are usually most thrilled
when we can witness
death being cheated.