The First Fifth

by Gita M. Smith

The first time that Beethoven's Fifth was played, people ran into the streets. Men and women wept. No one was left unchanged. Thieves returned coins and silver while wife beaters laid hammers to their hands. Clergy turned away from preaching hell and sang long hymns of love at mass or all alone in bare-walled cells. The audience and those outside the hall (the poor who crouched at windows) wanted nothing more than love, to love, be loved, make love and music, all.

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Gita M. Smith is saving up to go to Patagonia. A story of hers was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize, but so were 25,000 others. She posts stuff here.