My hands are slowly learning the terrain,
the steps, the reaches, changing intervals,
the black keys and the white,
which ones are called for in this signature,
coordination of the left and right

I didn’t know they had so much to learn,
I thought that they should know these things,
despaired to find they didn’t. I took a long time
crashing them through songs
thinking they’d never get it right

But they are learning
and I’m learning, too —
patience for things that take time,
willingness to do the work.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2017