Sticky Keys by Sohayla Mojtahedi Smith

Every piano in my house

has a story.

Some bear scratches

from restless children.

Some carry coffee rings

and fingerprints

pressed in by decades of lessons.

And every one of them,

without fail,

has a sticky key.

Just one.

A note that lingers too long.

A hammer reluctant to return.

A sound that hesitates

between silence and song.

Students sigh.

They press harder.

They ask me when I’ll fix it.

“Soon,” I tell them.

But secretly,

I’ve grown fond of sticky keys.

Life has a way

of giving us those, too.

A memory that catches.

A grief that refuses release.

A conversation replayed

long after the room is empty.

A mother.

A marriage.

A version of yourself

you thought you’d left behind.

Most days

we wish these things would stop sticking.

We want clean scales.

Perfect timing.

A song untouched by interruption.

But music was never made

by perfection.

It was made by tension.

By longing.

By notes that ache

to resolve.

Perhaps that’s why

I rescue old pianos

the way other people

take in lost puppies.

And maybe that’s why

I still love these old pianos.

Because every sticky key

reminds me

that something has been played

long enough

to leave a mark.

The keys that stick

are often the ones

that were loved the most.

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Sohayla Mojtahedi Smith is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist, poet, songwriter, and professional painter whose work explores adversity, identity, relationships, and reclamation. Her writing and visual art draw from lived experience, weaving themes of endurance and transformation across poetry, music, and collage. A published author and recording artist with international airplay, she brings both tenderness and strength to her creative practice. In addition to her artistic work, she is an educator and life coach who believes art is a profound act of healing and self-definition.

@sohaylasmith