The damnation of those scales
ascending one key to another, loaded
with the weight of tedium.
Then down, one finger to another,
like Dante’s endless circles touring Hades.
The bane of every parent’s insistence¬¬¬
on piano lessons – the unwilling pupil’s
noisy vengeance.
They are back again after sixty years
unwelcome as recurring nightmares.
Hanon by prescription:
take ten three times a day
by husband-victim of a stroke.
A staple in the repertoire of modern
physical therapy, the certain cure
for hand paralysis, the grim repair for stroke.
So up the patterns go, one fumble to another
and down they come like the ennui of rain.
The hands persist, hoping for a healing
before monotony stuns the brain.
Sharon Scholl is a long-retired college professor (Humanities) who convenes a poetry critique group and maintains a website of her free original music compositions. Her poetry chapbooks, Seasons, Remains, Timescape, are available via Amazon Books. Her poems are current in Switchgrass Review and Green Ink Poetry.
