Live performance at the Kitchen in New York City

mezzo-soprano Alexandra Montano
violin Marka Gustavsson
accordion Anne DeMarinis
piano Margaret Kampmeier
bass Richard Sosinsky

 Written for the Fred Darsow Dance Company

Texts by Satu Hummasti

Hours like veils
Why did I linger and fall, wearing the hours like veils?
I've longingly curved for your hand bearing the hours like veils.
I've waited.
I let you come up to me late in the night when love held your eyes, bright as stones.
I fell when I reached for you faded in dark when love fled your eyes cold as stones,
but I'll eat those stones before I cry, I'll eat those stones alone.

I see her waiting every night as the grocer pulls his fruits inside,
she's staring down the street,
I see her waiting every night,
in the pressure of the hours she sits there staring down the street as he brings another flowers.
But she'll eat those stones before she cries, she'll eat those stones alone.

I left when the first light quietly fell finding the street by dawn,
I'll go through the corridor in the dark, and find the street by dawn.
I dreamt of a body carried on my back, the body was my own, I flung it from my skin.
I dreamt of a ship easing into sand tall and full of flight urging me to go, urging me.
I threw my body from my back, I threw me on the deck and left.

In the mirror in the hall I saw the place I left I saw the place I'll always leave fading in the glass.
In the mirror in the hall a stranger urges me to leave and love and always leave to fade into the glass.
I see you in a pool of light fading in the glass.

Flicked in the night by a wind my dress falls and falling does not find you.
In the wind I rise and falling do not find you.
Night held me close like a ghost holds skin I fold into the night.
How will I ever sleep again?
I remember your hand on my waist I fold into the night.
When will I ever sleep again?
Some devil keeps me wide awake waiting for the sun.

I slept and had a dream so sweet a body in a field of wheat.
I wake into the dark alone, gentle in this place and seized, quiet in this place and seized. Some devil keeps me wide awake waiting for the sun.

If I had never seen despair, I would not know you, but you are not a stranger, I feel your skin.

In the mirror in the hall I saw the place I left I saw the place I'll always leave fading in the glass.
In the mirror in the hall a stranger urges me to leave and love and always leave to fade into the glass. I see you in a pool of light fading in the glass.

I've known

I've known, I've known the dead stop night, the humid air, your body next to mine.
I've known the sweet of summer vine curving through the air.
I've heard the perfume running down the street.
The smoke I've seen build up between the walls, the suffocating fire searing through the hall.
I've known, I've known the dead stop night, waiting at each ticking of the clock, no body next to mine.