Archive | March 6, 2016

The Coffin Shaped Box

A coffin shaped box arrived at our door.
I brought it inside, set it on the floor.
The cat howled and circled, all in a tizzy,
Round, round she went, ’til her brain was quite dizzy.
What was in that box, she wanted to know.
Perhaps toys, or catnip, or imported snow.
Why was it so big, why such an odd shape?
Did it hold a costume, complete with a cape?
Was it a new bed, a place for her to sleep?
She meowed and she called, and begged for a peek.
So we cut loose the tape and lifted the lid,
Inside was a case – oh what treasures it hid!
And when it unzipped, inside a surprise,
A new violin that brought light to our eyes.
For though we can’t play, that doesn’t mean,
We can’t bother the neighbors with screeches and screams.
And maybe someday, a real song we’ll wail,
If for disturbing the peace, we haven’t been jailed.

Full disclosure: I am not the one hoping to learn to play. That would be my brother who has always wanted a violin. Unfortunately, in his youth, some kind soul told him that in order to master it he had to start as a child, and since he hadn’t there was no point. Being the person my brother is, he listened to them, and it’s taken me all these years to convince him to give it a go anyway. We got this set on eBay (it’s a learner’s violin set) and he is going to learn or I’m going to tie him to a chair and make him. Sadly I can’t read music (I’ve tried. And tried. There was a reason I went for percussion back in school) but I teased him that if he learned to play we could get our piano tuned and stick numbers on all the keys then he could write out the music for me using numbers for the notes (like little kid keyboards do) and we’d duet. Ha ha!
And now I head to bed. Have a good one!
Jo 🙂