Blue, Green, Red and Purple: Chamber Music
Little ears listening avidly to the chatter of aunts and uncles... Betty Collins's amusing note-perfect poem recalls every child's experience.
The aunts and a couple of uncles with gusto
Start the ball rolling, exclaiming and babbling
The news: all the gossip, the funeral, the wedding –
She said, and he said; who cried; who went wacko;
There’s no way I’d miss it, of life the retelling.
Then they see me the listener: all wide-eyed (adagio)
And look at each other, and whisper: oh dear!
Deep-toned booms an uncle (molto largo cantabile)
This is serious: too much has gone into a certain small ear -
And what may be carried I (tremolo) fear:
So lets threaten, cajole, bribe and (molto vivace)
Make certain it stops here, minuetto absurd.
