Old Soul

Emerson Choudry '27

By the doorway to my house sits

the grand piano

  well the not so

grand piano as it waits there

collecting dust and disappointment.

A shame, it really is after all

it was promised to my aunt but

promise broken because

of me and the aspiring dreams and expectations.

cliché I know

The Asian girl playing the piano

Expected to balance it all. I mean, 

what can be more stereotypical than

playing Carnegie at ten but

  the roar of the crowd is

now drowned out by potential compliments and the Krebs

Cycle back and forth losing 

the talent, the hope, the prosperity, the pride

the ivory keys that once translated our souls

now translates the silence

But silence is the same in every language

and all that’s left is the haunting emptiness of the dust still in the air,

clinging to the pages, the strings, the memories

A feeling that Chopin’s prelude in C-minor

 could’ve conveyed in the first place.