Untuned

Piano keyboard with a tuner backed
Untuned

You sit unused under the archway 
between here and there
next to the couch, also black.
Don’t know why I avoid you so, 
I love you so and when we’re together 
we’re harmoniously transformed.

Yet, something’s off. 

It must be the river, 
its dampness lingers within you 
sliding along the skin of your tendons, 
lubricating, loosening ever so slightly, 
not seen but heard and so offensive 
should I dare to touch you
or move to reanimate 
a long ignored suite by Bach 
or Britten opus, 
a piece of Mahler, 
or Richard Rodgers.

I’m not cheap so what’s the problem?

The kit and key you came with sit 
in the drawer in the kitchen corner. 
A mitt and cream, so little effort
and then you shine beside the matted couch. 

I make the call and wait until the time arranged 
and greet the man with tool-filled case
to tighten taut your strings in tune 
for just a couple hundred dollars

so I can sit before you turning pages
under the archway just us two,
next to the couch who now requests
a song by Stephen Sondheim. 

Photo credit: michelangeloop

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