Two blue-hairs cheek to cheek,

benched at the sidelines

of the corporate sponsored transexual football championship,

work on a mix-tape, Elon Musk’s “Tesla”

& Nancy Pelosi’s’s “Chinese Investments,”

Read my lips. . . , it’s transnational

voices by turns quarrelsome, then deepfake-digitized,

Neanderthal, & frumpy

as the line-spaces of poetesses

sponging off federal grants,

painted lips on frappuccinos,

Meaningless lines snaring the reader

with—

Hi officer. What?

No, I just pulled over to read some poetry…

No sir, I don’t drink, I was just reading poetry like I said.

Yes. I thought I probably shouldn’t drive and read poetry at the same time, especially modern poetry with those weird line-breaks and spacing.

OK, thank you officer. Yes, I’ll be careful.

In her poem, Duet, Lisa Russ Spaar tells the story of two sisters making music together, based on two pre-existing songs by different artists. Today, we challenge you to write a poem that involves people making music together, and that references – with a lyric or line – a song or poem that is important to you.