The Beehive

[John Galt]

The Beehive

Interval
A release of conversation
Above me
Dvorak lingers in the blue mushrooms
~
Theatre smell
Music dust in crushed burgundy
Climbing the stairways
To the halftime bars
~
I sip overpriced whiskey
Amid a peck of cheek kisses
Murmur of nothing talk
and the fog of stale Chanel
~
She stands by the window drapes
Isolated by beauty
I engage her
With the price of a smile
~
Elgar easy on the lifting strings
As the Nimrod casts it spell
Oblivious
To two empty seats

Note: The Royal Albert Hall is nicknamed ‘The Beehive’ and the blue mushrooms are sound disks usually back lighted in blue and mounted on the high ceiling.

Hello Carousel, I cannot make up my mind whether the abstract nature of line 4, verse 1, is worth it, yes, there is the explanation in the footnote, but the line did drop me out of the poem to consider its meaning. I like the other connotation of "above me" IE, that people were seated in the balcony.

I thought the "crushed burgundy" were drapes, which are to my mind more likely to hold "dust", even though "music dust" was an abstraction. I would drop the word "music".

I think you could cut both of the words the in verse 2 lines 3 and 4 without losing clarity.

Amid a peck of cheek kisses
Murmur of nothing talk
and the fog of stale Chanel

All the above seem worn out, new thoughts are a must.

Isolated by beauty, is borderline cliche for this reader, especially in the context it is used.

I like the last verse and the connotations it throws up, especially that both people were there alone, and the future it may bring.

Thank you. JG