Matthew Recio - Holdfast, mvt. 1

Music: Matthew Recio
Text: Robin Beth Schaer
Performed by Stare at the Sun
A.J. Keller, conductor
Cameron Marquez, percussion
Live Performance
Trinity United Methodist Church
Wilmette, IL
October 28, 2023
Audio & Video Engineering: Sean Keenan
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The dead are for morticians & butchers
to touch. Only a gloved hand. Even my son
will leave a grounded wren or bat alone
like a hot stove. When he spots a monarch
in the driveway he stares. It’s dead,
I say, you can touch it. The opposite rule:
butterflies are too fragile to hold
alive, just the brush of skin could rip
a wing. He skims the orange & black whorls
with only two fingers, the way he learned
to feel the backs of starfish & horseshoe crabs
at the zoo, the way he thinks we touch
all strangers.