Cassette Sonnet

You gaze through a little window

at brown wound around two circles

and with a pen, straighten curlicues.

A circle shrinks as a circle grows

a half-drawn curtain in a rectangle.

Fading names, epitaphs, hits.

Dirty heads and the diva quits.

All wow and flutter, the lyrics are mangled,

spilling their guts which the machine eats.

Unkempt brunette, cold on the shoulder,

“You’ll dig it less when you’re older.”

The cases break and melt in heat.

They’re second-hand for 20 cents,

yet the catch amid the kitsch

is the write-protected glitch:

You turn into your parents

and it’s curtains. Stop/Eject, kaput!

You dozed off to Gordon Lightfoot.