^{In the original nightingale myth, the girl Philomel is raped and her tongue is cut out. She asks the gods to save her and they transform her into a nightingale.}

It’s not a nice story – lust and danger,
rape and pain.

The first ending is tongue-lessness,
the girl unspeaking,
the darkness palpable.

Then the gods intervene,
on a wish and a prayer.

The girl grows feathers,
a beak, a voice –
and what a voice!

She turns the pain into something
outside herself.

We all know the truth of that –
pain released, pain let go.

Pain and more pain till the body’s
emptied out.

Then the way the cello takes it,
carries it on the air –
lightly oh so lightly –

to somewhere else.