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 spiced

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