a traveling musician was he,
entering the stage in a cheer: “A wand’ring minstrel I!”
this character stunned many a prop of the two-act comic opera,
“The Mikado” or “The Town of Titipu”
each, a tongue twister of some sort
but a brain-teaser, too, for us – the non-Japanese
mikado stands, after all, for the Emperor of Japan
while it represents – online references claim the same:
“the great gate at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto”
no mind-boggling intent is actually there to spend
an age-old tradition of respect is merely in to maintain
when addressing nobility, that is…
where, then, do i come in?
let me make the attempt to explain:
Nanki-poo speaks of his father as the “Brutus of his race”
the world-renowned assassin of Caesar
for the Mikado “condemned his own sons to death”
charging them with “treasonous conspiracy”
one act’s revelation of this son’s escape from execution
is, please beware, of no notable importance here
the Mikado’s rise to the throne however, is
along with his lifelong pretense as a “fool”…
why, you ask?
allow me now to get to my final task:
we each seek a safe space in our memories, as i believe
an alternative reality to help us avoid self-destruction
for me to pretend i am a fool is a long-lost obstruction
besides…
no seat of any significance ever meant anything to me
so…
it’s not the opera’s mikado i can relate to
or ever do
the daughter, i have in mind instead
one he had only from afar
she betrayed her own paternal kin
no conspiracy was there to wrongfully pin
she thought him the fool her entire life through
though to him she was the brightest shining star
one who refused his admiration, for she was dead set
but…
now that he reached a most fragile age
would declare herself a saboteur of notorious fame
having always received either love or more of the same
without ever having given in return anything without rage
who today remains in hopeful despair and desperation as well
for her homecoming not to be too late to cast anew its desired spell
© hülya n. yılmaz, December 16, 2014
Source: One of my three contributions for the January 2015 issue of The Year of the Poet, a monthly book series published by Inner Child Press, Ltd.
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