Kinder Than Man

mixed voices • for musica intima/novum musica

This work is published by musica printima - available here

Program Notes

I grew up near a highway, so roadkill was a normalized sight since I was young. Althea Davis' poem reframes the common image of a dead animal, wondering what comes next and praying for the next step of their journey to be safer. As the poem goes on, attention moves to animals that have lesser and lesser respect and care from the public, and the need for simple comfort becomes more and more dire. Davis then turns the attention to us; human beings are animals too, and if such a grisly fate awaits us, then hopefully we'll receive the same love that all creatures deserve.

Text

Kinder Than Man - Althea Davis

And God,

please let the deer

on the highway

get some kind of heaven.

Something with tall soft grass

and sweet reunion.

Let the moths in porch lights

go some place

with a thousand suns,

that taste like sugar

and get swallowed whole.

May the mice

in oil and glue

have forever dry, warm fur

and full bellies.

If I am killed

for simply living,

let death be kinder

than man.