play me a tune, mr piano man ~

         with apologies to billy joel

 

this is the music I hear at 3 a.m.

leafy          sticks and twigs

the piano a ruined instrument

but still attempting music

notes lift dusty from the keyboard

broken into fragments: a quarter note

becomes 1/16, a whole note just a half

time means nothing now

the pianist exhausted in their chair

wrist extended     broken into pieces

of a life      reaching for music

still    and nothing they can hear

but I hear it    curling through dreams

dust mote notes sifting through sleep

leaf and twig and splintered wood

what I know so well