July 2023
June Crawford Sanders
juneinca@aol.com
Bio Note: I am a bird watcher, time traveler, and amateur piano player. My poems have been included in several small press publications including What the Elephant Said to the Peacock, Eureka!, and Ethel magazine.

Haibun: Piano Recital, the Fifties

The old brick two-story high school building. Cavernous auditorium. Finally, the big moment. Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen years old, through the years, you walk across the stage to the grand piano, nervously face the audience, “My name is _ _. I shall play __by ___”. The Spinning Song or Minuet in G or Fur Elise. Adjust the piano bench, arrange your evening gown, feet hovering over pedals, hands in your lap, deep breath, raise trembling hands and begin to play the piece you’ve worked on so hard for weeks and finally memorized.

Best Performance Award has to go to the petite third grader whose long evening dress catches on a tall basket of flowers and tips it over as she crosses the stage. By the time she extricates her dress, rights the flowers and makes her way to the piano, the piece she was prepared to play has totally gone out of her head. Running away is not an option - she came to play. Fighting back tears, she sits down and improvises - plink plink plink plink – with both hands – for an appropriate length of time – Mary Margaret makes up her own song, stands, curtsies, and exits the stage with ultimate eight-year-old poise and aplomb. 

tiny butterfly
buffeted by sudden breeze
brilliant ballet
©2023 June Crawford Sanders
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