Mezzo
- Mezzo
I am the heavy tone,your trouser role girl, tessitura:non-castrati witch or bitch, you pick.
My arias are not about you,
man, Vitruvian butterflyon Venn’s lotus; you can’t finger thismiddle space collision, this marquise
of a vocalise, this melisma o—
Lean your ear & fill to the edge,strings stretch to low & lieback on the thrum & trill,
the evening’s subspace.
Sing me & hold each notewith an open hand, the cognac swirlof Louis treize, the velvet & scratch
of a burning throat. [End Page 610]
tanya grae is the author of the forthcoming chapbook Little Wekiva River, and winner of the 2016 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Poetry Prize, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa. She is a PhD candidate at Florida State University and holds an MFA from Bennington College.
