…

‘did you hear it’, he asks me in a dream.

‘I haven’t stopped listening’, I say.

‘I wish I could hear it, just once’, he says with a pained smile.

‘the Ode to Joy moves me to tears’, I say.

‘I wish I could hear my sobs’, says Ludwig ruefully.

‘I wish I could see my tears’, I say.

He laughs a laugh he cannot hear.

I laugh too,
my eyes brimming with tears,

that only Ludwig can see

…