Our Bloodied Piano

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Convulsions rack my body

A new assault of tears

'Plans for war!'

A proud headline.

I slump at the piano.


Despair weighs my shoulders –

What a world I live in.

It is not modern! Stop lying!

Still, War a torrent!

My fingers rest on the keys.


Bombs rain down upon the ivory

Drop. Blink. Drop.

Numbness. Misery. Anger.

My passion channels into the notes;

The piano cries too.


War blinds the leaders as

Tears blind my eyes.

Bloodshed blinds the merciless;

Shame of them blinds me.

Clumsy fingers grope at F#

She sings halfheartedly


Why can't my music bring peace home

As Shostakovich's 7th Symphony did so well

In the face of all despair?

Bloodied fingers continue to play

My bloodied fingers; my bloodied piano.


This nuclear threat

So stark and violent

Sends chills up my vertebrae

Every time I hear its name.

Man's bloodied fingers; man's bloodied piano.


May our anger be taken out on this instrument

For this instrument has the power to save lives.

May its screams of anguish be heard, just as our brothers' were.

May our brothers' bloodied hands bloody my piano,

And you will see the bloodshed of centuries.

Our bloodied hands, our bloodied piano.


I give it to you in hope of reformation

So that you do not give in to your urges of brutality,

But instead your urges of atonement.

And that your brutality instead is inflicted upon those keys.

For you have the power to save lives.

You have the power of the piano.

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