Mackey: Places we can no longer go

Places we can no longer go
by John Mackey
text by A. E. Jaques
The Hodgson Wind Ensemble at the University of Georgia
Cynthia Johnston Turner, conductor
Lindsay Kesselman, soprano

for more info or to view the score:
http://johnmackey.com/Places.php
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Places we can no longer go - text by A. E. Jaques

I look for you in all the old places
a series of shabby apartments and a Mexican restaurant
that teal-slashed sweater from your yearbook photo
1992

gone now, land unmarks

I trace the trail of us in memory’s atlas
a dotted line crossing borders like in an old movie
big letters for your grandfather’s store, italicized
rivers of music

garbled now, lost-making

I run the roads of us all uncharted
boundaries blur like the lenses in old movies
I see you smudge-soft in Christmas and
Siamese cats

clouds hide the end of the world

called a nurse by your name, saw your face on a stranger
out of place, out of places, I find you everywhere
the bright arrow that fixes the map of vanished things
You Are Here

and so here I am