To Dissolve (2012)

for tenor & piano
Text by Elizabeth Cantwell
3 minutes

WORLD PREMIERE
Matthew Miles, tenor; Lisa Sylvester, piano
May 3, 2012, Los Angeles, CA

To melt; to melt away, sorrow
in hand. Delta, delicate, acquiesce yourself
to it all. Like a pill on the tongue,
a strip of lemon sugar sets its
sting on the edge of your eye.

And I liquefy, deliquesce. You dwindle
away, vanish; a single strip of salt
descending. So, row in hand, we pass
over the dark waters into the sunrise -