String Quartet
by Theodora Goss

The violin speaks to the violin
and the viol interrupts. The cello
adds its opinions, intermittently.
They are like a dysfunctional family,
arguing with one another,
saying different things, and yet
out of disharmony comes harmony,
like a father and mother going to a party
with their two daughters, one insisting
she is a princess, the other prancing
like a pony while her mother is trying
to put on her coat, the father saying
once again in his sonorous voice
they should have left fifteen minutes
ago, really don’t you know
it’s time, it’s past time.

(The image is Family Portrait (The Bellelli Family) by Edgar Degas.)