to my Grandmother, Lucy W. Young
and to my mother, Mary Adalyn Young Douglas
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