Secret chord

Brianna vaca | Spring 2023

If there ever was a secret chord I’d play it
Alone
Alone on the bench
Sound translated off four white walls
I’ll have played the secret chord!
The secret chord! The one nobody has heard before!
I didn’t want to press too hard
My foot on the pedal blending in a g major
Because what if the secret chord sounded sour?

Only the walls heard it
Their eggshell gleam suggested it was radically pleasing
I played it for strangers
Strangers on the internet
They didn’t say much
14 likes, 1 comment

Maybe when I get older
The whole world will say “that old woman, she found the secret chord!”

I really found it when I was 17
I played it alone when I was 17
Just nobody heard it then
Nobody except for me
Not without the g major seeping from weight on the pedal

I had been holding a secret since girl to woman
If they only knew!