Baby Ghost's Song

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I watch it all from the womb

My mother’s crimson dress
a time-lapse tomb
twists round her in the water

She is abandoned, abandoned

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I die of hunger
But I will save my mother
I set fire to the island
The blaze climbs to the heavens

I sing to lure the sailors

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See there? A ship on the horizon

I drag my mother by the hand
to the water, to the water
The noose of grief

Can’t hold her forever

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She’s free at last
A cold consolation
I am scarlet flames
A distant constellation
I am abandoned, abandoned

 

- Lisa Moore

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Program Note:

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In 1540, Marguerite de la Rocque, a French noblewoman, was marooned on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland for two years. Before she was rescued by fishermen, she gave birth to an infant. Tragically, her child did not survive. 

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