Because this poem explores various physical-emotional ways in which one can distort a given moment in time into something which is transcendent and viscerally deeper, the project of this piece is to achieve this very phenomenon in different ways. It aims to be a lullaby that morphs into different highly contrasting caricatures that all share the same goal: to shatter the moment like glass.

GLASS (text)

on the underside of every fragile moment

there exists a spot so delicate that, if you hit it just right

it would shatter like glass

maybe with the weight of a hammer,

with a clenched fist,

with a pointed finger

or perhaps if you scream at just the right pitch,

like a banshee or a diva

or like the shrill cry of a newborn at the dawn of uncertainty,

with the tenderness of a muted trumpet

crystal shards would rain down,

refracting the light beyond them into elemental shapes,

dissolving the colors from their misshapen canvas

for what is beyond a moment?

their ears would ring with the sound of absurdity

as it leaves its indelible mark

and the janitor sweeps the pieces off the carpet

Premiered by TAK ensemble at Maison Française, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States on April 19th, 2022.