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The Piano is out of tune[s]
Crocusses

For my great grandmother, who died this morning at 102 years of age.

When I was a child I would sit
 1
On your daughter's lap
 2
My hands mimicking her motions
 3
And I didn't know then
 4
She was making the music
 5
So I would hit a note
 6
to hear the melodies I thought
 7
flowed from my fingers
 8
 
 
the lowest key on the piano boomed
 9
I tumbled from her embrace
 10
and ran out of the room.
 11
She laughed and asked me why I was running.
 12
I replied that Satan would
 13
take me away if I stayed.
 14
 
 
You wrote us a letter
 15
asking them to tape me
 16
clumsily fumbling
 17
attempting to recreate
 18
your daughter's music
 19
and while people tell me I look like her
 20
my fingers keep slipping
 21
and the piano has fallen into ruin.
 22
 
 
Here on my wall your ink is smudged
 23
in all the regular parts
 24
lacking emotion
 25
replaced by formality.
 26
I wonder if you were crying
 27
because you knew that was all I could ever have
 28
and that no one would ever
 29
know me
 30
once she left the room -
 31
the lowest key on the piano
 32
left to vibrate off the walls in my
 33
soul.
 34
 
 
The tape was never made
 35
because the keys repelled me
 36
and the dust-covered off-white plastic
 37
was reminiscent of the confident love
 38
and gentle understanding
 39
I was lacking.
 40
Still now, when I hit
 41
the lowest note on the piano
 42
though the scales are sore
 43
and badly need tuning
 44
I hear a voice gently laughing.
 45
and while he tells me I look like her
 46
I want to run from the room.
 47
And when people ask why I am running
 48
I reply that an angel is whispering to me
 49
and I know I'll lose you if I don't run.
 50
 
 
 
 
 
 
This morning, I suppose, I didn't run fast enough.
 51

14 Feb 05

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Comments:

wow... this is an amazing piece of writing.

if emotion itself could do the waltz on my bedroom floor to silence, this is what it would sound like.
..and that's a compliment.

i am sorry that you lost a loved one, but i think that this is a wonderful elegy, and an amazing tribute to a memory of someone.
 — shakeit

I found out tonight that my great grandmother whom Id never met loved playing the piano.

thankyou.
 — ShelbyS

thats right, I agree with shakeit, this piece is done really well.  I can tell you have spent a little time working and arranging this.  My only suggestion would be to put a comma on the end of line 17.  Other than that, this is very graceful and most reminiscent of a piano being played.  Fitting.


peace from the infinite abyss,
mister fizzle
 — MisterFizzle

The Lost Chord

am sorry for your loss and hers
 — netskyIam

google the song tiltle, click the third link.  she knew this song,  most definitely
 — netskyIam

wow..i had no idea you are this good at writing poetry..this was simply amazing
~rob
 — unknown
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