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.