for Alessandro Moreschi and all his brothers

Priests or their henchmen went for the boys,
drew a hot bath till they fainted.
Glissando to flesh.
Gory to God.

Petitions & scales for succulent song:
Lord, mercy
Christ, mercy
Laud to fell the boys.

Others lost their bleak soprano.
Gorged, coffered, spirits sacked,
on they swaggered
tenor, bass.

Faces flat, hairless, huge,
boy castrati stayed.
Vaulted throats flayed the praise.
Organs utterly raged.

Golden pipes shot homeward,
pulleys of screeching praise
singed the heels of seraphim.
Organs utterly crazed.

A mass of pulp to masturbate
behind the harpsichord,
orchestral body, fingered heft,
left as its own reward.