Why I Like Gilbert & Sullivan
written by: Sam Barbee
My mother was a Salem College graduate,
educated in graces of pre-WWII femininity.
After family-building ended in stillborn,
in miscarriage, my parents decided to adopt.
She negotiated for a daughter. The decision: a son.
To console herself, she tried to smooth little boy edges—
frocked me in a kitchen apron, bought me a doll and a tea set.
Dad frowned. She introduced me to a set of Childcraft
insisting I read an hour a day before baseball
or banana bike riding.
To expose me to music,
she bought a box set of albums titled “Musical Library”
containing jazz, folk, country, classical, narrators
reciting tales and poems, and she had a passion
for the opera disc: some tracks grated, but some I liked.
Dad rolled his eyes.
I envisioned myself a Pirate King—
venture seas, guzzle brine and crash breakers, but she
preferred me an English Man. Nicknamed me little buttercup.
Dad’s eyes tightened. Some Saturdays she harbored
my crew of maties, or a band of sweaty pirates, to prance
round our galley table for a bounty of Pepsis and Moon-pies.
Secretly she lived a personal opera to prove lives cannot
be defined by losses, and coached me to become capable
of choosing which occurrences should be forgotten.
Spin a record, be open to a poem’s intrigue,
smell each butter-yellow petal.
She allowed love
to put everything in motion… if a record snags
and replays a discordant musical phrase, nudge it.
Soothe grief using every phrase and ballad beneath
the new moon, always exploring for another
bright paper lining inside a cover.
- Why I Like Gilbert & Sullivan - April 10, 2026
- Dawn on the Black Sea - March 31, 2025
