Loops

When you loop music tapes

 

The tapes always shred

 

The iron powder music

 

Always becomes unstuck

 

The glue relents to time

 

And the dust slips

 

Music falls to the floor

 

 

Sometimes the loops disintegrate

 

Faster than others

 

But always in the same pattern

 

 

The notes are still there at first

 

But the tails are shorter

 

The sustain decays

 

Falling away backwards

 

Until the long beautiful notes

 

Are only heartbeats

 

Holding on, becoming fainter

 

The life and death of a melody

 

 

And come the end

 

When all the dust has spilled from the tape

 

And not even the attacks are audible

 

One can’t help looking

 

At the clear, dustless soulless tape

 

Without thinking of a human being

 

And realising that from one loop to another

 

The songs sounded just the same