When Christo had wrapped the Three Tenors Poem by Alfred Brendel

When Christo had wrapped the Three Tenors
on the balcony of La Scala
the civilised world fell unnaturally silent
Falsetto supplications
barely audible
through the sack-cloth
were registered
in horror and glee
by opera-lovers attending the spectacle
but where that desperate ear-splitting top-note
issued from
remained uncertain
It may however be assumed
to have come from the middle
and more voluminous
of the celebrities
whose mummified contour
began to quiver
while
at his feet
an envoy from the world's freest country
voiced his concern about such curbing
if not gagging
of human communication
Opera-buffs will be pleased to learn
that the wrapping
in grey plastic
of Robert Wilson and Peter Sellars
halfway up Cologne Cathedral
has been confirmed
and will commence
in due course