Back Porch Baldwin

The thing was so horribly out of tune; leave a piano out in the open, in the hot and the cold air, in the rain and the dusty dry, and what do you expect? She didn’t care. She played it joyfully over the years, as she grew up, as it grew worse, as she blossomed and the strings broke and buzzed, as time passed.

I was only a year younger and just next door. I watched through sliver gaps in the fence, then peeking overtop it, then leaning my arms on it. Eventually I asked her out. Eventually we married.

17 comments:

  1. A great story of something worth waiting for.

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  2. A harmonious ending all round then!!

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    1. I'll bet that his wedding present to her was to get the piano restored. :-)

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  3. I just re-watched a favorite movie of mine, "Empire Of The Sun". Bear with me, I'll tie it in with your poem. In the movie, the Japanese have plundered the international settlement at Shanghai, China, and filled a stadium with the stolen stuff. It's been there for months, if not years, and someone sits down and starts playing a piano that is--inexplicably--perfectly tunes. Huh?!? Your poem speaks to that, and merges it into a scene and a poem that really is perfectly in tune. So nice.

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    1. Well, it's not really a poem, but rather a drabble, but thanks for the kind words. :-)

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  4. I like the wild freedom of the piano in the open...I also like happy endings...

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    1. There's some city that put pianos out for people to play, but I can't remember where it was. Wonderful idea, though.

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  5. I love the lifelong story in such a brief space.

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