Piano

About this poem

I was inspired to write this poem after hearing one of my cats walking across the keys of our family piano. He leapt onto the bass keys from a rolltop desk nearby. It was startling at first; the sudden low thunderous tones of several bass keys being struck at once, but he proceeded up the scales. He paused around Middle C, sat, pressing half a dozen keys in the process all at once, licked his paw, then raised and continued on until he had reached the higher notes. He then turned and jumped off. His brief debut was atonal at best, but strangely familiar and pleasant, despite the initial plop on the lower keys. It reminded me that such an instrument has been used for so long to tell so many stories. Such a universal musical instrument, a piano, and yet still so mysterious. more »