A Sonata of Galuppi

(Baldassare Galuppi was a music composer in 18th century Venice. Johann Pachelbel came a little earlier. Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguette were vaudeville artists and on-off lovers in Paris in the 1920s.) Your filigree correctly fret, those perforations, so correct! And how I love that dying strain, suggesting sadness, feigning pain! A twisted, coloured paper chain, a love both sacred and profane, your melody's a silhouette: imperfect pleasure, sweet regret. Your sharp and sugared vinaigrette is like a Pachelbel duet, a sorbet made with fine champagne, or raindrops on a window pane, the fragrant soil of southern Spain, a grief I still can't ascertain - Chevalier and Mistinguette? That wistful chime! I hear it yet!