Abandoned Piano or Some of the Keys by David Russomano

Arts Richmond

Online - 06 August 2020

Abandoned Piano or Some of the Keys

We rehearse memories—
          workshop, assembly.
We weren’t always cracked and jaundiced.

We wait like an overbooked theatre’s audience,
          shoulder to shoulder, snubbing each other.
We can’t muster a note of compassion;
          working together is out of the question.
We pine for the warmth and pressure of fingers.
We won’t accept the gape
         of their absence.
We’re suffocating
       in these narrow allotments.
We never faltered
       when the plush curtains parted.
We draw nothing but crowds of vermin.

We wait like cemetery plots
       the merciless hearse refuses to visit.
We curse each other
       for cursing each other.
We wish that they hadn’t swept up the roses.
We wonder if this is the sound of damnation—
       a vacuum after applause-induced rapture.
We wear layers of dust
       like straitjackets.
We sang for touch
       on stage, in the light.
We don’t believe there’ll be an encore.

                                                         by David Russomano

Bio: David Russomano is the author of two poetry collections: (Reasons for) Moving [Structo Press] and Caught Light [Friends of Alice]. His poetry has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, long-listed for The Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize, and featured in over 40 publications, including The Missouri Review and The Worcester Review. In 2014, Kingston University awarded him the Faber & Faber Creative Writing MA Prize. To learn more, visit https://davidrussomano.wordpress.com/