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Opera Bouffe

By Philip Gross Philip Gross

The count of cappuccino,

the marquise of meringue,

all the little cantuccini...

and what was the song they sang?

Oh, the best of us is nothing

but a sweetening of the air,

a tryst between the teeth and tongue:

we meet and no one’s there

though the café’s always crowded

as society arrives

and light glints to and fro between

the eyes and rings and knives.

We’ll slip away together,

perfect ghosts of appetite,

the balancing of ash on fire

and whim—the mating flight

of amaretti papers,

my petite montgolfiere,

our lit cage rising weightless

up the lift shaft of the air.

So the count of cappuccino,

the marquise of not much more,

consumed each other’s hunger.

Then the crash. And then the war.

Source: Poetry (February 2006).

Biography

Philip Gross lives in Bristol, England and teaches creative writing part-time at Bath Spa University College. He won the National Poetry Competition in 1982 and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize in 1998. A number of his seven collections of poetry, including The Wasting Game (Bloodaxe), have been recommended by the Poetry Book Society.

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