Two days before, he’d had hand surgery,
then played a ragtime concert for us all.
He never missed a beat or dropped the ball
and we were privileged. O, this music’s spree

caught us and wove a magic web all through
the quiet church. His fingers flew, foot tapped
mad rhythm, as if bracing winds had slapped
us. Pianist myself,  I never knew

that hands could be so deft or move that fast.
Scott Joplin and Tom Turpin blew the top
off musical imagination. Drop
it all to hoist this virtuoso’s mast.