I've just requested Up Up and Away
by The Fifth Dimension from the piano lady
But play it slow... 'Slow?..oh!' she says
with a heavy New Jersey accent, eyelids
half-moon-half-smokey-cabaret-cool o.k. she walks away
nodding in her black spandex

I imagine a beautiful flight of tender emotion
from this slowed down tempo...I can only imagine
'We'd - like - to - o - pen - this - set - with - a - piece - called
Up - Up - and - A - way' she says in her best sultry voice, each syllable
a starlet looking to be discovered

Starts...piano plays...slow nice...like
Mister Rogers' fake jazz...beautiful schmaltz
some notes...out of tune...o.k....makes it...even more
ugly/beauty/slowly...tune....amazingly...contorts
into background...leaving foreground...to deconstruct
into schmaltz...of itself...I
am left...traveling the piano keys...with my
slow image ballooning...playing with
the tempo of my...flying in
my beautiful...my beau-ti-ful...over everything
flying...over everything that's wrong...and
everything that's doubt...and all I am
is white keys...over black keys
in a restaurant...where no one ever heard of...
or thought of ever slowing...and I...am free...
and schmaltz...and out of tune