IMPROVISATION #211
MY HISTORY OF CARMEN

 Listening to "Carmen"
     laughter   and tears
propped on my cheek
   guided by  frenzied years
    of coloratura performances
   from Gypsy  rhythms
in orange and red giddy rounds
  when in adolescence
   Bizet danced in the wind
in a campy Spanish way
from an operatic fear and dread
whose star  vanishes upstaged
   cheek to cheek
 by my playing second violin
until I got into the first row
 from my newly rosined
   filling in with my vibrato
for my bow
   at the idiosyncratic  start
 not ever to forsake
   or vanish in my clever strings
  with its clever toned libretto
climbed  at the edge of my chair
at the "Habanera"
as with Nikolai Gedda
to roll  and sing along to share
  breaking  through
                  the singing roles
 knowing it all
     by the Met chorus swaying
at a a solo's poetic Don Jose
 for a matinee
  performance as in La Scala
 with a dramatic break
into a gay finale with a glance
 from  a departing comic book
 looking to a nobility of
my history of Carmen's
 freedom with a  pop art
           and Romantic heartache.