Breath on Piano -- Gabriel Orozco (2011)

i'm sitting at marthes's piano, my fingers gliding across the new keys.  new pianos are like new shoes--you have to break them in and get them dirty. my hands slip and stumble like some kid who's never ice skated before and i let the room know i am very drunk. they already know, i know.

i play this version of "rain song" by led zeppelin that i rewrote for piano and this lady in the room says, "i know this!  this is french" and she sounds like an idiot but i don't say anything. i pour my breath into the keys, i pour myself into the body--my fingers mirror the hammers on the inside, i know.  i am leaving my mark, a stain, a fleeting part of myself; and that is all that matters