No one knows this,
but one of my very favorite
sounds and experiences
comes from the elementary
music class
every morning
as I drop my kids off
for school

sounds like
a giant cartoon bagpipe
slowly dying
but I know
there are no bagpipes in that room
and that of course
makes the sound so much sweeter

raw creation
knocking on the door
like a chick cracking from shell
--and chirping chaos

it is the sound of no evil
of no war
no poverty or oppression
only newness,
hands like baby grasshoppers
jerking & jumping
from key to key

the sound of a society
trying to make it work …

and every morning when I hear
the car crash of their orchestra
I believe
a little more
in humanity.

Bradley Mason Hamlin