there's a stain on my jacket i hope never washes out is a graphic-scored piece based around a poem I wrote around the time I broke up with my last partner.

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The piece asks the performer(s) to navigate their way around a meandering map of notational material and aleatoric gestures, interposed in between a short melody based around the poem.

The performer(s) are free to recite the poem as they wish within the piece, although this is not required.

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there's a stain on my jacket i hope never washes out is, in essence, a love letter for those scared of love letters: a bittersweet celebration for those you love, and have loved, but cannot love anymore.

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There’s a stain on my jacket
I hope never washes out.
From when I spilled coffee

over us

on one of our long winter walks.

 

And for a brief moment

in time
it felt as if life was almost

normal.

 

I want to say that
I've not missed someone before they left
but that's a lie
because I miss you every day.

and so
When we fall asleep

in each others' arms

for the last time in a long time

I try

to think about

the good times.

Because despite the stamp

on my passport

I wish I could erase

 

or

the trappings of a life

and career
that geography cruelly disregards

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There's a place out there

somewhere

suspended on a sunbeam

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In the vast expanse

of space

and time

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that is

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forever

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us.
 

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