Piano Scales

Piano scales in the air suspended
dance light-footed and shrill
swift above the spent embers of night
and the bitter scent of coffee steaming for morning
pale and black
like acid in the throat as it passes
but sweet-bitten
by a single grain of sugar —
amen

White shirt brush-stroked with wine stains,
burn holes and coffee stains
speckled across like little grains —
painting smock by the windowpane
under morning light and autumn rain

Jazz to remember,
and jazz to forget,
and jazz for all the folks I never met,
smokey nights to later regret,
and piano scales the eyes to wet —
amen

Written on a Saturday morning, August 2020

Inspired by the work of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

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