Walked past a beautiful old piano that someone put on a curb into the dirty snow. All pianos are hand made, even modern ones, but this one was particularly well made, every detail considered, and still looked handsome in its aged light wood. A woman ahead, also on her way to the subway, opened and played it for a few seconds, and it sounded incongruous with the grimy street around it and the traffic noise from the expressway below.

I wish pianos weren’t so expensive to move and tune. I wish I had the 10 feet of clear wall space that this not-especially-large piano required, not to mention the thought of an hour-plus of the commute ahead.

It is painful to think that these are the last 20-30 minutes in life of this beautiful instrument that someone made so many years ago, that someone bought and carefully brought to their home. I’m glad I wasn’t there when the garbage truck came. Nothing like this will ever be made again.