My poem, “Ache of Crimson in the Key of C,” received an honorable mention in Passager journal’s 2025 contest. The poem appears in the Fall 2025 print issue.
This poem is about my mother – or rather my feelings about my mother when, as a child, I witnessed her transportive passion for playing the piano. She was always so full of emotion, especially as it relates to the beautiful things of this world. She passed in 1999 and I feel her presence often through music certainly and also when I take the time to step outside myself into the wonders of the world around me.
Ache of Crimson in the Key of C
My mother used to cry
when she looked at the sunset.
The same far-away expression
she wore playing her piano
for hours. Whichever music
came to mind, to heart. Beauty
a vector toward purest
harmony. I remember
feeling afraid, as a child,
knowing she forgot me
in those moments, orphaned
outside her vision of heaven.
I loved the sky and melodies
but not in a way that made me
tremble the way she did.
My tears were about loss,
mourning a gift I couldn’t share.
Have I ever loved anything
that much? Words perhaps?
The shadow where a woman
should be?