Mandy, I love this poem

*Mandy showed me this poem a year or so ago and I'll never forget about it. I love it. Thank you Mandy Madson.

INSTRUMENT OF CHOICE

She was a girl
no one ever chose
for teams or clubs,
dances or dates,

so she chose the instrument
no one else wanted:
the tuba. Big as herself,
heavy as her heart,

its golden tubes
and coils encircled her
like a lovers embrace.
Its body pressed on hers.

Into its mouthpiece she blew
life, its deep-throated
oompahs, oompahs sounding,
almost, like mating cries.

---Robert Phillips