close your eyes

Sometimes if I close my eyes hard enough, I can go back

I can smell the hall of the practice hallway

I can hear people practicing around me

I can go in Burnes Hall, I can hear the orchestra tuning

I can play that symphony again

I can hear my conductor shout, laugh, cry

I can hear people in the lounge

I can win that game of Mario Kart, again

I can wake up in the middle of night and walk around the conservatory

I can do my laundry in that room next to the vending machine

I can listen to Mahler 5 with my friends

I can discover I am very bad at ping pong

I can discover that some friends might not be true friends

I can learn that you have to stand up for yourself

You can’t let people manipulate you

I can stay awake because I have Dvorak 9 stuck in my head

I can look at my phone, it’s 4:30 AM

Crap, I have rehearsal tomorrow