Jose Padua: The Sound of Music

When I realized that
the former prostitute
and now homeless old
woman who sat
at the stone
bench facing the
Civil War nurses memorial
always smelled so
bad because whenever
she had cash she’d
go to the grocery
store and buy groceries
including cuts of
meat that would
begin to rot as
soon as she left
the store because
she had no place
to refrigerate much
less cook them
was when I first
understood that
the music I was
only remembering
in my head could be
just as loud as
the music being
played by a full
orchestra for an audience
paying good money
for the great joy
of being lifted up
with sound.

 
— Jose Padua

The photograph was taken earlier this evening on the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge on the way into DC.