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Boogie-woogie Woman
Mark Thalman

Driving past, I am always intrigued
by the sight of the white upright piano
in their front window.

Why did the Smiths exile it
to their mountain cabin?

Freezing winters,
dust and dampness,
summer’s fluctuations,
have tuned it
into an aging singer
who can’t reach the right notes.

I heard the piano only once.
It was loud—the whole cabin
a sounding board.

Sitting in front of this shining enigma,
a silver-haired woman
filled the forest
with boogie-woogie—
entertaining chipmunks
and three hundred year
Douglas firs, as if this was
the only thing that mattered.

—
Mark Thalman is the author of Stronger Than the Current, The Peasant Dance, and Catching the Limit. His poetry has appeared in CutBank, Pedestal Magazine, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, among others. Thalman taught English and Creative Writing in the public schools for 35 years.

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