THE FLAW

This melody, escaping by deft
evasion the music's sinking weight,
rises buoyed through the flute
into air, and at the highest pitch

Kinkaid, in one recording, deliberately -
where a lesser musician might in fact
have faltered - breaks it for an instant,
splitting the note. Then falling,

the fluttering part rejoins
the slow train of chords beneath it.
There can be no explanation but
a virtuoso's distaste for perfection.

And dark paint swathes this bowl
in patterns squared, doubled on themselves,
immaculately filled with ochre
and bare space. A minute gap
...