ALMOST

by Claire Scott


A Steinway. A red silk dress.
The audience still, anticipating the first note
of Schubert’s B-Flat Sonata.
Anthony Tommasini ten rows back
will write the most sensitive Schubert ever
in tomorrow’s New York Times.
My hands hover over the keys.
I begin with lyric phrases
followed by the ominous trill.

My little brother.
Composing contrapuntal music at the age of five,
playing flawless Chopin preludes presto con fuoco
on his gleaming grand piano.
Illustrious teachers line up to listen
tweaking their moustaches in disbelief.
Downstairs I bang fortissimo chopsticks
on the old second hand upright.
The red dress crumpled at my feet.


* * * * *

"Almost" was first published by Streetlight Magazine.

Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, Enizagam and The Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.