The Soprano and the Incarcerated Singing
A woman sings soprano and she goes
To visit men in prison. She instructs
How they should give the bass line and transpose
Distress with voices. Her voice conducts
Them how to deal with Dido’s sorrow near
The pyre and waves her vocal wand to show
Them how their throats can find a woman’s sphere
Of suffering. Maybe Adam’s apples know
The way to honor sadness better than
Some other parts of manliness can grasp.
Perhaps the throat is best designed in man
For ache. Despair knows well that tearful clasp.
The inmates guess this better than the voice
Instructing them. They know the source of Dido’s choice.
~ Phillip Whidden