#157

“It was stuck in my head
for days,”
she said –
“until I sat down
and got it out”.
And for a moment
I am scared to death.
She is eight –
nine, maybe… so small
that it’s hard to remember.
But she is
young
and I am holding
so much potential
in incapable hands.
Build to handle
Hanon,
yes
and made
for mastering
Mozart – my hands
can handle octaves
with ease despite their size
— always much
to the surprise
of the judges –
But there is much
these hands can’t do
for someone so full
of music
that Barbie dolls
and Easy Bakes
are played
to soundtracks
non-existent
until she gets it out.
She is a living jukebox
of latent masterpiece
A composition prodigy
in potentia
She speaks of the piano
the way gravity
would the heft
of the universe –
as though there’s nothing to it
As though penning music
years ahead
of what today
she could read off the page
is just natural.
I could never have taught her
to be this way.
Instead, I must be careful
not to break it.