Little You, Looking Up | 10'
SSAATBB Chorus
Our relationship to the night sky evolves over a lifetime. As children, we may look to the sky as a symbol of something lasting and certain. As we grow older, the stars represent something much more complex: a reminder of how small we are, how insignificant, compared to the vast universe beyond our planet. That disoriented feeling— “the sky a floor that could swallow you whole” —may even lead us to confront our own mortality. Ultimately, Little You, Looking Up explores how we live on even after our own bright stars fade: in our children, in our art, or in something as small as a hand- stitched quilt.
This piece was commissioned by the Phoenix Chorale (Christopher Gabbitas, Artistic Director; Nicole Belmont, Executive Director) with generous support from Mary Farrington-Lorch.
This score will soon be available for purchase through Graphite Marketplace. Request a perusal score here.
LITTLE YOU, LOOKING UP
Little you, looking up,
fluent in the language of stars
and of sky, lights so fierce and far
and bright, you thought
they must be eternal.
Little you, sleeping under
a glow-in-the-dark map
of your imagination, under
your grandmother’s quilt,
its constellation of stitches.
Little you, unaware
that even stars flare out.
Where did you read it first, or hear it?
—an asteroid, hundreds of years from now,
ending life on earth.
Your mother tried to reassure you:
We’ll be long gone by then
she said, which only made it worse:
the planet gone, and you, and her.
Little you, no longer eternal,
crying under your grandmother’s quilt,
the sky a floor that could swallow
you whole.
Remember: before you were bound
by Earth’s petty rotations, you spoke
to the sun in her language of stars.
Fearless you, looking up,
unafraid of change.
Older now, still looking up,
sleeping under your grandmother’s quilt
though her own bright sun
faded years ago.
Name your daughters after stars
Tuck them under your grandmother’s quilt
So whether they’re looking down or up,
they’ll see themselves reflected:
Small and fierce and bright.
Meticulous. Unhurried.
Possessing their own
gravity. All time.
All sky. All light.
Almost eternal.
—Dale Trumbore
