Musee Des Beaux-Arts Nice Poem by Stephen Brian Brady

Notice on a worm-ridden Clavichord
'You are formally requested not to touch'

it was a bright October day
at the house of Princess Kotschoubey
that I was filled with mal-intent
a desire to touch her instrument
did I detect within her gaze
encouragement a spark before a blaze
and then tip-toed across the sunlit room
her guardian and t'was though that fading bloom
had wilted that Autumn rose was dead
so with little joy but peevishly
I touched other things instead