Daily Prompt: Music
Under shiny black recital grand—
6’8”, precious
(“we thought we’d have to put wheels on it
and drive it” precious, according to Mom),
imposing, and yet
as normal as the living room couch—
I lay for years, paperback held high over my face,
and listened, felt, as my head resounded,
an extension of the piano soundboard ribs,
minor chords and melancholy tones percolating
the marrow of my own small ribs,
my forming bones in structural flux,
changing the makeup of me.
When I cut myself now,
I still bleed Chopin,
scab Schubert,
scar Massenet.
Repeated passages,
memorized runs,
I could hum her music
by heart, in the dark;
and the notes and the paperback story I reread
mated and melded, blended and emulsified,
and under the piano,
Chopin and L’Engle made a child,
alloyed and hybridized,
a willing crossbreed,
and the child was me,
in the alto line of a
happy minor key.
For the month of May, I will be posting something daily, namely some kind of respond to The Daily Post’s daily prompt or some other prompt, unless a poem or post visits me of its own accord, unbidden and welcomed.
Pushing the Bruise 
Mmmmm. I love how you blended different elements of location, sense, and music.
Thank you! I think I want to play with this one some more.
I love this, and the golden color of the wood in the photo is scrumptious too!
I wish it were my picture. I didn’t have a chance to go take one at my mom’s house. 🙂 Thank God for the interwebz.
Mmm. This. This is magic and alchemy of such richness. Beautiful!
Thank you. Music does that.
“…The child was me,
in the alto line of a
happy minor key.”
What a beautiful way to describe yourself. How I wish I knew music the way you know music. I could actually DISCUSS these things my husband loves so much with more than, “Who’s this?” “That sounds nice.” Ugh!
Did you hear his composition? I told him it was the happiest sounding song in a minor key I’d ever heard. 😉
The beauty, m’dear, is that music can be learned. Start by trying to isolate the line of a particular instrument or voice part. You’ll be amazed at what you can decipher.
I totally *did* hear his piece! Interesting interplay among the lines! I hope he’ll keep “playing ball.” I know he’s threatening to let that be his first and last…