Pain and its absence

great health is like the fullness of a symphony orchestra
playing a great ballooning crescendo as if in the next moment
it could devour the maestro but still play on

can you, if you are in great health, feel this absence
of pain and would it be like a silence,
an deadly empty musical score?

I imagine my mouth after years of troubling sores
the tissue is celebrating: there is no hurt
nothing reminds of the ordeal

so I play the first violin again and practice with my bow
it should move the same as the other violins’ bows. The maestro
points at me with his baton and my body agrees with everything
it has only friendly exchanges along its periphery
and there is no need for pain