He taps my shoulder and says “We’re up”
I feel the lights burning my skin
Complete silence
I look out to the sea of people
I see millions of eyes
My heart is beating so fast I use it to keep tempo
He starts to tap his foot
I get through measure one
Remember the e naturals
Why did he play a c sharp
Are we playing the same song
We come back together
We’re almost done
Just a few more measures
Perfect pitch
In unison we bow,
and walk off stage
“That went well”
“We messed up”
“But they couldn’t tell”
“We were supposed to play part A”
“But it sounded good, isn’t that what’s important?”