on your baby-
grand piano,
smearing those
artless and hurried
arpeggios—while,
in the background,
outside the practice
room window,
floats the revenant
of the failure
that haunts you the most
who bids a good
morning to your
ritualized devotion
and prays (on your behalf)
that death
and transfiguration
may be differentiated
by only two
or three notes.
