Baldassare Poems | Examples

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!