The flautist’s art becomes a means to convey the mortal challenges faced by the artist in a totalitarian regime
Iota and theta, the flute
of the Greeks gives no recitals –
unsculptured and short of repute,
trench-crosser, it ripened and tightened.
You can’t let it out of your grip:
clench your teeth, you won’t subdue it.
You can’t pull its form from your lips.
No tongue can force words through it.