"A Duet" is built less around a clear story than around sound. Each line seems to hand a word to the next: "strings" leads to "springs," "war" to "warped," "tact" to "tacks." That chain of echoes feels like two musical lines answering each other, which fits the title. Two figures, "she" and "he," appear to be linked, though the poem never says how. She sings "silently," while his wings "unfurl," so the closeness feels quiet and strained.
The mood is tense and a little painful. Words like "sharp," "stings," "violence," "bite," and "tacks" turn music into something that cuts. By the end, marks and words on his back seem to hurt her spine, as if what wounds one person is felt by the other. I read the poem as being about intimacy that hurts, though the wordplay keeps the meaning slippery. The two dashed single words, "Unfurl" and "Contact," work like stage directions, moving the duet from opening up to touching.