An average dude with saxophone
can make a whole room swoon,
sadly this is not the case
for same dude with bassoon.

A burpy, wooden periscope
the orchestra it tops,
play it loud and long and proud
you will be asked to stop.

The voice of quirk and um-pah-pah
but there’s a truth untold
of slender maple melodies
and the stories they unfold

You’ll broadcast human sacrifice
to usher in the spring,
then thumb your nose at Stalin
and set fire to bird’s wing.

And when the concert’s over
and you hear the people say,
your big old oboe sounds real nice,
just smile and walk away.

It’s a different kind of sexy
one you musn’t disregard,
Just try the tree you’ll see
It’s nine feet long and always hard.

————

Melissa Lux does a lot of different stuff, some of it well, none of it great. She taught high school band for 12 years, learned a bunch about holistic healing, wrote some scripts, made some jokes and now is pursuing a second masters in bassoon performance. . . no one knows why. A native of New York,(though don’t get too excited she’s from Long Island), she moved to the mountains of New Mexico just outside of Albuquerque where she lives with Lilly, Huckleberry, Michael and Skip. . . one of them is her husband the rest are pets.