PIANO RECITAL WITH PINK CARNATIONS, RED GLADIOLI

[to my Grandmother, Lucy W. Young
[and to my mother, Mary Adalyn Young Douglas]

and dedicated with love to my sister, Sharon F. Douglas
whose middle name should really be "Music"


ah breathlessly exquisite the carnation nosegay, pink spice

with its center of paler pink rosebuds, pale satin streamers
for a little girl's first recital and matching her dress.


can she reach the pedals in all this pinkness

whisper quiet asks an audience of all the neighbors.
softly, first notes spill like little pink sapphires


onto glass, like

grace notes plucked from a cloud and the older students in

polished cotton, waiting their turn stop fanning themselves
with their programmes.

there should be petals raining down said her mother then


as if she were the flower girl-
at the wedding of Music
said her Grandmother, in gladioli red and stylish,


The Piano Teacher


mary angela douglas 9 august 2014