Getting over performance anxiety

at the performance,
you imagine them as the Judges
in black robes, seated in folding chairs,
stern faces, sharpened pencils and notepads
for recording every missed note, every
miscounting
until one of the Judges gets up and sticks
his tongue out at you inches from your face,
jumps on a chair and laughs, tells you,
"OH, that note is flat, yuck!" and you
keep playing as the other Judges
shrink into judges, into people, into
friends, and the notes still come out in
perfect rhythm and pitch, and the goofy one
turns up the volume on my favorite song
"Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and I smile
behind the flute and my hips move a little.
Madrigal sings out all the way through
to the end, finishing in harmony.