On a piano found in a field

On a piano found in a field

I’m reeling it in, A Virginia Reel across the strings
Plucking the lower keys with my big toe,
Lay my toes

across the mahogany,
my mahogany southern body
my key, my white teeth clacking middle C
This is where I’ve ended up
Finally,
blood flowing through ivory

Sorry, sorry,
dear elephant who never lived on my street
but dies in the living room each time a third grader
huffs her way through Chopsticks,
Bow your head to the pachyderm
Bow your back to the staccato plea of each key
And each tiny bum on the leatherette bench

One key per breath,
finding the space between the notes
Keep the blood flowing downhill toward the mouth,
always downhill toward the mouth of river, of white teeth, now open
lips holding stories told a thousand times,
in that gap-toothed smile
between the atoms

Eilish Nagle
from the archive, 2012