I Tubi del Mare (The Tubes of the Sea)
At eighteen Marigold Rise, the pool was drained at season's end,
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I Tubi del Mare (The Tubes of the Sea)
At fictional Willowbrook Estates, the pool at 18 Marigold Rise is drained for the season and eleven foam pool noodles go up to dry on the side-yard fence, hung in a gray mesh sling. Citation WB-2024-0762 follows: four of the tubes rise above the top rail and stay in the sight line of the street ninety-one hours after the last swim, against a bylaw that allows seventy-two and requires an opaque, lidded container besides. A bright lyric soprano argues that foam sealed wet in a bin will mildew; Thaddeus Crane, who chairs the Architectural Review Committee, argues that a mesh is not a lid.
The aria runs from evening recitative into a clipped catalog of every storage bin Giulia has already tried and been refused, a sparring soprano-and-tenor duet, a quiet bridge at the shallow end where a child learned to float, and a broad ensemble coda for the board in full voice. Strings carry most of it, with woodwinds, horns, trumpets and harpsichord continuo underneath the voices.
It suits a last warm evening on the patio with the pool already covered, the drive home from a swim meet, or any afternoon when something small has to be put away and you would rather it stayed out. Every person, address, citation, and board decree in this work is fictional.
"And where's the harm in foam?""And where's the lid? And where's the lid?"
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