The Shape of Music

Above a whirling
vinyl platter
carved with sawtooth
spiral grooves of music

Before opposing
reels, one fast, one slow,
threaded with a snake
of rust on plastic film

Atop the spinning
pitted silver disks
with rainbow sheen
and bounce of flashing laser

Beneath an oscillating
drum head, tight
and humming thickly
to a rhythmic wooden thrum

From hypnotic turnings,
endlessly repeating,
concluding where they first began,
it should be evident

to any pair of educated ears,

that the shape of music

is round.

Scott Speck
08/19/2002