Post-Operative

[ray miller]

Next time you go on your tod,
I’ll find a quiet corner
while you’re sitting in the gods
humming Nessun Dorma.

For there’s nowt more certain
to evoke my anguish
than a fat bloke singing
in a foreign language.

[Amadis]

I pick up feelings of loss, loneliness, perhaps some anger.
This is a difficult one to parse.
(tod=alone, gods=??)

Perhaps some imagery or expansion could elucidate.

[Macavity]

I got isolation. Nice to see the diction of tod/nowt in a poem. I like the unbridled 'humming'.

muchly enjoyed

mac

[NotQuiteSure]

.
Hi ray,
nicely done.
What's with the title?
And 'evoke' seems out of place (with tod and nowt and/despite bloke)

Regards, Not

.

[Jackie]

Cool, Ray. I’m awed by what I see as your comparison of Trump with Pavarotti, in such straight-forward, simple language. in a slang voice that takes the reader unaware.

I take “on your tod” and the title to mean that N supports Trump otherwise but objects both to the January incident and to Trump’s passion for a foreigner’s music, since his message is all about white American superiority.

There’s so much in this deceptively short poem.

Jackie

[ray miller]

Well, that'll teach me not to try and be clever. It's just a lowbrow joke about my dislike of opera. It was originally just the 2nd verse with Opera as the title. Should've stayed that way. "in the gods" means the high seats in an opera house.
Jackie, your response is so much better than the poem.

[NotQuiteSure]

Hi ray,
it was the title that threw me (or at least made me assume there were hidden depths here. Post-op? How could it not).

At the risk of offending my grandmother A Night at t'Opera ?

Keep the first verse, the joke needs the set up.

Any way to make N's distancing clearer in L1,
Next time you'll be on your tod ?
or
Next time, you go on your tod ?
or
Next time? You go on your tod ?

Or if you could tweak the second verse, so that N is less anguished and more unable to sleep,
then the English translation of Nussun Dorma (None Shall Sleep, or , colloquially, Nowt can kip) might work?

Regards, Not

.

[Namyh]

Ray - When we intermix our discontent with poetry, it can operatively become post-operatic.....but with music! Hallelujah! LOL. I liked this work. Thanks for sharing Ray. Namyh

[camus]

Nice one.

"There's fewer more distressing sights than that
Of an Englishman in a baseball cap"

The above immediately sprung to mind. You're in good company.

Cheers
Kris

[smiffey]

Hi Ray,

Not quite sure why the second verse has tickled my fancy but I'm now worried that I'm going to recall it at an inopportune moment and laugh out loudly.

Thank you for the cheery imagery.