Bass

The bass fiddle

is a riddle.  A violin

shape, but un-little.

It is the songbird's

king-size cousin

who ought to sing

but doesn't, whom

song could never teach.

One's hand must reach

for notes like thoughts

for speech.  Hence

it's known a sort

of magnet-driven

transport, how the root

of each chord

repeated moves us

forward.  The effect

is comic or eerie

when it ventures

a melody, like

watching an obese

trapezist: he suspends

our breath and expects

to tremendously

please us.