.Original DDE™ art: “Euterpes” by: rob kistner © 12/8/25
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I.
she sang like someone
afraid her breath
might bruise the air—
soft…
trembling…
a moth
caught in the bright machinery
of a spotlight
yet her voice
her amazing voice
unfurled in colors
only the lonely
or the broken
could see—
lavender spirals…
golden threads of harmony…
red embers of passion—
all curling upward
like smoke
from a slow-burning star
II.
he watched from the doorway
of the world beside this one—
the tech genius
with midnight-static eyes
the man—
who walked confidently…
who heard things…
who knew things…
ahead of everyone else
his coat shimmered with circuitry—
fabric stitched from the edges
of equations
boots dark as mirrors
reflecting futures
that hadn’t occurred
he didn’t applaud
he listened
he watched
he saw time
bend around her voice
like heat around a flame
III.
after the show
the alley peeled open—
a long corridor
made of floating tape reels
spooling backward
into the scent of rain
on old vinyl
street lamps
melted into neon shapes
the world had yet to invent
her breath
formed pearls of sound
that hovered…
hesitated…
then popped—
into tiny bursts of light
he stepped through the distortion…
a silhouette
drawn in electric ink—
reached for her hand
as if touching a fragile frequency
that might vanish
if startled
IV.
time parted
like a curtain
melting clocks
sagged on velvet air—
their seconds dripping
thick as honey
electric guitars
grew from the floor
humming chords
older than memory—
newer than tomorrow
fragments of 1967
drifted by—
paisley fireworks
above the bay bridge
unfurling in slow motion
a whisper of Woodstock
carried on the wind
Janis laughing
somewhere at the top of the sky
our confused girl felt a breeze
from another decade
lift her hair
calling her by a name
she’d never spoken aloud.
V.
her shyness cracked…
thin shell falling away
from this woman
who had been waiting
inside the quiet
her shadow split…
four versions of herself—
each singing a different note
a harmony of everything
she had refused to believe
she could become
he stared
perplexed
frozen in awe
he realized too late…
she was not
an anchor
for his temporal machine—
she was the storm
that made time tremble
VI.
she stepped high
onto a floating vinyl disk
spinning like a slow universe
felt the pulse of the sixties
thrum beneath her bare feet
for the first time
she lifted her chin
and let the world see her
without apology
let the world hear her
unfiltered
her voice rose
fearless and iridescent
and entire decades awakened—
like giants
turning over in sleep
it was in that moment
the tech genius understood
he hadn’t taken her to the past—
she was pulling the past
to her
reshaping time…
a new future
from a single
impossible note
this girl was
Euterpe—
goddess of music
goddess of lyric poetry
goddess of the double-reed flute…
come again—
to bring a new sound
into the world
rob kistner © 12/9/25