The alchemy of life’s best demonstrations are found

In sudden switchback whirls to happiness,

As when you stumble upon a random piece of heaven

Around an unsuspected turn.

Today Nature envisioned for us the perfect set:

A sky cerulean pan, unblemished and unwashed;

Big trees with names as challenging –

Black Locust, Cockspur, Hawthorn, Slippery Elm

A man-made Garibaldi pointed the way

Beyond the copper glints of water towers in the lunchtime sun.

The audience gathered and seemed the perfect sample

In gender, age and color,

They cradled dogs, stroked touch screens,

Caressed familiar shoulders, checked the progress of probing ants

Or slept off the late night booze on shaded lawns.

Protected by the hawthorn trees, stood the matt black grand

Its veteran keys flanked by plastic buckets – as yet unfilled with either folded notes or metal.

A third up-turned bucket became the seat for Colin Huggins

Our virtuoso in torn jeans, a pork pie hat and the cheery patter

He introduced us first to Frederic Chopin then to Phillip Glass

He holds us all inside his fingers

And in a moment of sweet modulation

We sit within a circle inside a Square

Held In the perfect balance of infinity.

May 2015