Lynn Strongin

Piano / Memory
               
Memory: Press one black,
then a white
key. The mute pedal. Pianissimo, dove-quietly.               

The Picayune
set aside
on the old piano bench.
               
At the piano, in sapling days, when the Holocaust raged
in Europe,
I wrote my first melodies by the gooseneck lamps greenish blaze.
               
It was autumn Always. Always. Ebony
Ivory:
Dominoes        stars burning hotly.
               
Sizzle
on stove
as wet wool does.
               
Riding a hansom thru the park long long ago, a walking girl:
the one on crutches, the earth in Europe still smoldering ashes, the little horse
kicked at
               
traces of crystal
transparent freeze. Before Polio: the Memoir of my 2nd child began:
               
Traces so icicled:  Softly press piano key:  mute pedal shifting it to Destiny.

 

Uranium Miners
(Terry Wright)