Letters to Paola

an opera

for Robert Avery

Before the fireball, and the murderous dark,
beauty and knowledge make their own remark.

A scatter of burning jewels into a stream
has lit a revelation from a dream.

A midnight blindfold shamed against the eyes
is loosed to a first day, a child’s surprise.

This art: where the worst insult can be hurled,
to play a speech-song, resurrect a world.