the same feel as a typewriter,
soft keys
that earl wild (or, (insert
another pianist to your liking here)
if you got 'nother loud one
like rubenstein or
ashkenazy or
horowitz or
eschenbach or
barenboim,
please keep 'em going)
can drown out.
i used to ash all over
my old '54 underwood
after high school while
a cigarette dangled
by my dry lips
and listen to something classical
that was new to me
and pretend i were at the piano,
but with mad sentences
and a disregard for syntax.
there's not enough
intellectual noise in america
(well, the world as well,
but i am here (and also there)),
not enough passion.
i miss the bang of the keys
on the underwood
and the fresh paper
like writing it first hand,
but with that hard print
of energy and satisfaction -
watching the smoke just
drift
over the words
(like having a heavy conversation
in winter
and steadily watching
the heaviness of breath
lingering with righteousness
and a continuity)
and non linear connections
into that
satisfyingly depressing
room; it was all there
with an answer
and it didn't matter at the same time.