Po et r y
OPERA, OPERA!
What work is that?
An Investigator speaks:
" It had been discovered that lenses
Of opera-glasses could not be controlled;
T hey had been cased in mother-of-pearl
And jewelers called them 'a scientific work of art,'
Glittering to look at in the fluorescent glare
Of a salesman's eye, but when one touched them
The hand became unsteady,
(If
one saw anything at all)
Became unnaturally clear.
and the sight
A box-holder reported
That he saw Valkyrie riding through the lens,
That he could count October falling tears
Of Orpheus raining in a painted forest
Through autumn leaves and papier mache towers–
Gray twilight billowing in canvas skies-
He said he could almost hear the chiming choirs
Of angels with tinseled hair and violet wings
Who gazed at heaven with mediterranean eyes,
That when the lens
Pierced the asbestos curtain,
At last he knew that something had gone wrong.
The lens showed Parsifal
And hairy legs and arms wrapped in a bathrobe :
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