This Piano Will Do Fine
I admit it to my neighbor down the block:
I believe in angels—a curious admission
since what we’ve always talked about
is the weather and the results of ballgames.
My angels are neither beautiful nor ugly
just good spirits who were once good men
and women who cared for me more than
I did for myself. My neighbor tells me he
bought “a little expensive piano” last weekend,
a gift to his wife, not that either of them can play.
“I suppose,” he says, “I just wanted a piano,
sort of the way you wanted an angel.”
I’m not sure my angels can play anything
(except maybe blow on a long trumpet)
but I saw two of them do a buck and a wing
together, dancing in the sky with a truly sharp
finesse. I was impressed and called out to them:
“I’ll give it a try.” I lied, knowing they wouldn’t
hold it or anything else against me, coming back
soon to show me more of the beautiful steps.
Tim Suermondt’s sixth full-length book of poems A Doughnut And The Great Beauty Of The World came out in 2023 from MadHat Press. He has published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Stand Magazine, Smartish Pace, The Fortnightly Review, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Poet Lore, and Plume, among many others. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.