Night at the Opera

At first there was darkness, and there had always been darkness.

Then the stars turned on.

And music played, as if silky notes drifting through a night-cloth dome of windows,

and in this way wonder entered the scene.

Wonder mated with music and seeded people.

People would go on to forget their original parents, but would long to return

to this mysterious unknown, this insoluble home.

There would be that tenderly agonized longing, that homesickness,

and there would also be the deepdown knowing

that emptiness knew the score, i.e., that they, the people,

are made up of so much more of what they are are not

than of what they are, or think themselves to be.

The whole thing was an opera, a fretted fiasco,

with the recording of a mute fat soprano

playing in the background.

About John Biscello

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, novelist, poet, performer, playwright and filmmaker, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001. He is the author of six novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, No Man’s Brooklyn, The Last Furies, and No One Dreams in Color; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His plays have been staged and performed both nationally and internationally.

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