The Brooklyn Bridge Piano I

            June 7, 2014

A piano washes ashore under FDR Drive. An ordinary Mason & Hamlin. The high tide of the East River tries to take it back. But people notice and drag themselves across the Brooklyn Bridge. Some stand and listen to the wind sing. Others note the loud lap of water, the squawk of seagull, the hum of traffic. They are here for the silent symphony, to touch the mystery. One woman brings a cello, plays Bach. She sways to the beat. Her white concert dress trembles. Salt and sweat balance on her lip, drip to the baby grand beneath her feet. She only says hallelujah. Hallelujah! A local photographer grabs the shot.

Later, a frustrated maestro, far from the shore, will stare at his screen. Beneath his feet, the piano's strings lay tangled like serpents.

M. E. Silverman had 2 books of poems published and co-edited Bloomsbury’s Anthology of Contemporary Jewish American Poetry, New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust, and 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium. @4ME2Silver