Douglas, the dandy, the music man,
moving house, brings in brawn,
one third of his school's men's staff room,
shifting that piano from upstairs.
At the top, the head of physics
and a Shakespearean, calling to those below,
Hark to my piece.
The staircase beef comes from the historian
Colin from Ton, and an economics teacher.
To their left, as the instrument descends,
a half an inch of finger room.
To their right, one tenth of a centimetre.
What silly bastard, shouts Colin from Ton,
would put a baby grand in a council house
in the first bloody place?
From aloft, whole centuries of sound, sonata,
music's magnitude,
sink slowly in their might upon history,
economics, reason, thought
and (may the fates be thanked)
a woodwork teacher.
Thus creativity is brought to earth
and six young men
lay it to rest in the long blue van,
go down the pub.
Piano Movers by Robert Nisbet | Poetry Fabric Box
$15.00Price
Robert Nisbet is a Welsh writer who has written both poetry and prose. His poetry has been widely published in Britain and the USA, where he has had four nominations for the Pushcart Prize. In Wales his collection, In a Small County, was published in 2025 by Seventh Quarry Press, of Swansea.
