I Have Become Redundant

{Cantata for Tenor, Bass, Chorus and Orchestra}

Tenor:

My losses drain out my toes,
My tools and art have all been sold,
And while the swan drifts lazily upon the pond
I'm curled with tubes against my bed
Asking why I still hang on,
Since I have become redundant.

Chorus:

Ah, ai, ah pity brings a soft and middle class relief,
A sympathy that draws a veil across your hope.
Se, ah, see. This pity that is wearing me.
Release me. The road is not here, and I must go on.

Tenor:

This day of wrath. This day of judgment
With you at my side.

Chorus:

Ah, ai, ah pity brings a soft and middle class relief,
A sympathy of dancing veils in this nice breeze.
I love my own feeling for grieving for you.
I am satisfied. Release me as you go.

Tenor:

Curled with tubes against your voice
I clearly see: I am redundant.
But I, I cannot, I cannot release you.
You, you, you must release yourself.
There is nothing here for you. Go!

Bass:

O, do, come deep to stay with me.
Descend these steps, in silence be.
Avoid assurance, look and see
Around your cellar, full of shadows,
Find in here your god, with rats and slugs
Pissing like bulldozers into mattress stuffing.
See if you might wake up t your situation.
O, do, come deep down and stay with me.
Observe, my friend, we both descend.
Only I am impetuous for the dark,
And I shall get there first.
Say goodbye and watch the steps
Going downward from this moment of your life.
Bid yourself adieu, and hope this hope:
That you will never meet your cozy self again.

Chorus:

These are my deities:
The rotting
The murderer
The mouse the wind
The compost bin
And into them I now descend.

Copyright © 2011 James Lawer