Canary

 

[Canary]

 

“That lady of high nobility with the rich profusion of blond curls on her forehead sang like a Japanese canary in labour.” (Etty Hillesum, June 1942)

 

Of the starcrossed lovers she sings

in fallendown cities at evening

sharing last broken words

 

Of the faded glum surrealists

their prim disaster collages

ground by government jackboots

 

Of cocktail circuiteers

rounded into carriages

overcoats by house of forlorn

 

Her range has highpitched planes

incendiary no-name screams

the gap and the explosion

 

Not the composer’s precise intention

an unusual take on the words

forced or matter-of-fact

 

A yellow flame in a coalmine

she sings dressed for the occasion

a kamikaze aria in real time

 

Of sputtering in a coalmine

darkness verse seven all mine

a song in the mind long gone

 

Of a certainty it will end

the soiree of old school set pieces

pointing toward midnight

 

Of her no information available

she held the notes made the bow

and sat again to applause polite that