Prick of the Spindle: Poetry: Anderson: Piano Piece

Piano Piece
By John M. Anderson

The grand piano is holster-shaped, slung
along the leg of a hip-shot room
that stands quiet as Jack Palance away
from the crowd, expensive gunfighter.

Hours earned or death bequeathed
this pendulous, peninsular coastline. Hours
explored, made its ivory pay. Open casket. Black practice.
The hammers cock above the well-dressed lap.

And the room goes suddenly empty except these two.
The glad-hand honkytonk barroom tinkle forgotten.

John M. Anderson is roaming the Southwest at work on a book-length manuscript called Alamos: A Chain Reaction, a ghost story about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. He is delighted to be appearing again in Prick of the Spindle.