Today's tease

With John close to finishing up the opera Varmints, which is based on my stage play of the same name, here's the opening of the libretto:

QUARTET OF THE DEAD

We are the dead

Our rotting flesh
The buzzards’ treat
Killed because
We dug for gold
And found instead
Ancestral bones

Our souls wander
Restlessly
Because our stories
Are untold

Listen then
To our grave tale
And give our souls
Their weary rest

We begin
In Oregon
In a desert
Filled with gold
Into which
Comes other news
Of a crime
Daring and bold

We are the dead
This is our tale

Varmints, the stage play, ended the "Charles Deemer's Oregon" retrospective that locally ended my career as a playwright. (See The Curse of the Retrospective). I had had several false starts on this play while playwright-in-residence at the New Rose Theatre. I dug it out again and finished it, supported by a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission. I always liked the play, though the reviewers were luke warm about it. I think I'll like the opera even better. Can't wait to hear John's music, snippets of which I've heard and like.