— upright · against the north wall · lid down —
walnut, oiled twice in a generation. the lid is down. the candle-holders are empty. on the music desk a piece of paper, folded once, has yellowed at the crease. it is not a piece — it is a tuner's invoice.
one key sticks: d-flat, two above middle c. when depressed it does not lift. someone, decades ago, spilled a sweet thing into the action and chose to live with it rather than admit it. the rest of the keys are level and bone and slightly yellower at the edges than in the centre.
a child played the same exercise on it every afternoon for three years. now no one plays it. when the room is empty it does what every wooden thing does — it makes the smallest sound and calls it silence. a low groan when the heating turns over. the sympathetic tremor of a passing rumour in the hall.
field-note: lift the fallboard and the room becomes a foot taller. no one has lifted the fallboard.humming · chime · the metronome · a score · a phonograph