eclipse —1993

eclipse was commissioned by the West Chester University Chorale, conducted by Donald Nally at West Chester University. The text is a translation of Job 10:15-22 by poet David Rosenberg.

if I stand up you come to me
cold as a camera
your pictures are marvelous pictures

they multiply your anger toward me
frame after frame
an army of moments against me

why did you pull me through the womb
locked into the brutal focus of time
i could have died inside never breathed

no one come to look at me
a quick blur in the world
carried stillborn from womb to tomb

so few days this life
why not just leave me alone
let me smile a little while

before I go off never to return
into the deep shadow of death
utter darkness—the thing itself

stripped of the background darkness
into the flaming
sun of darkness