She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round

for high soprano and piano

text by James Sherry

(1995) Duration: 3:00

PURCHASE

Performance by Edith Davis Tidwell (soprano) and Steve Rouse (piano)

She'll be comin' ‘round the mountain when the shell sometimes is empty.
She'll be comin' sometimes and the shell is an evasion,
when she comes around the mountain
to put in an appearance;
and this is the introduction we're all tryin' come 'round to.

She'll be drivin' six white and well-bred young mares.
She'll be tryin' to be comin', when one the horses slips on a curve,
but the traces hold her up
like a beautiful horse about to describe
the great vehicle she'll conduct, when she comes.

And we'll all go out to meet her when the well is dry and cracked
and the water is too neutral to hold
even a chance encounter when we're tryin' to be comin'
and breathe too hard or that's what I
heard when tryin' too hard to meet her, when she comes.

And we'll all have chicken and dumplings in a context
of the human shell, water in the trough,
the gopher holes, how hot leather is in the desert mining town
except to the horses,
When she comes.

text by James Sherry, from Part Songs, 1978, used by permission of the poet