Switching on the radio on my drive home from the store,
the sound of fervent self-discipline poured into the car,
Alice Sara Ott* embodying a classical tradition.

I imagine yearly hours of practice,
a child, a piano bench,
small hands flying over ivories,
mistake after corrected mistake,
her mind fingering practice,
locating the right keys,
note by note by note,
notes a composer distant in time and space
deemed to sound right sequentially.

Her eyes fixed fierce on the score,
pages of five lines flecked with dots
placed meticulously in precise progression,
each tense string struck, wavered, and stilled,
oscillations brief and long,
quanta of pulsing passion
vibrantly released in the quake of sound.

I was twice carried away,
by the car and by the piano,
my hands attentive to the wheel,
her hands attentive to the keys.

We had life in our hands.

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*Alice Sara Ott (August 1, 1988) German-Japanese classical pianist [Google for her story]