Shrill Music at a CD Signing (with the cast of a popular musical) - Frank De Canio

I went to see Der Rosenkavalier’s

soprano sitting with the other cast

for whom I would never withhold due cheers.

But my enthusiasm wouldn’t last.

If I’d assumed admonitory sneers

while all the audience stood with applause,

I’d socially be standing in arrears

for showing acrimony without cause.

Yet, when two singers from the Broadway stage

resented me for getting in the fun

of giving those two gals their proper wage,

I had to wonder. What could I have done

in liberal New York, where sympathies

for those deemed dispossessed are de rigueur,

and we applaud idiosyncrasies?

Perhaps, I look like a provocateur

which, inexplicably did not extend

to rushing past them at the signing booth

to get the contralto poised to pen

the only autograph I sought, in truth.

Alas, with the respect for them that they

did not give me, I went through the routine

allowing them to slight their castaway

again, till I gleaned solace from my queen.

Their autographs, assessed disdainfully

in my home’s smallest room, are behind me.

BIOGRAPHY:

Frank De Canio was born & bred in New Jersey and worked in New York for many years. He loves theatre, and music from Bach to Amy Winehouse. and world music. He hosts a philosophy café in lower Manhattan every other week and attends a poetry workshop in midtown. Both of those are now on Zoom.