flash flood fiction (2021)
Vocal Sextet (SSATTB)
Duration: 10.5’
Recorded by Variant 6, May 2021
program note
From 2018 to 2020, I lived in Houston, Texas, a city known more for its extreme weather cycles and ties to the oil industry than its proximity to natural beauty. As a city, Houston is completely flat and is prone to flooding at a moment’s notice. Yet amid frequent weather disaster and discomfort, I discovered one of Houston’s most beautiful features: the sky, the ever-expanding sky. A sky with clouds so broad and plush and complex and huge that you could imagine mountains living within them, gigantic clouds that are ready for downpour seemingly at all times. But as light passes through these clouds, I often found myself bewildered by their lush majesty. It’s strange to think that something like the sticky gulf coast sky could become a landscape of natural beauty in and of itself.
flash flood fiction is a tribute to Houston’s skyskape, both its beauty and destructive tendencies.
Text: flash flood fiction
author: Rūta Kuzmickas
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what moon spreads out like mold
along the dampened paper backs
of storm clouds coalescing—
sleeplessly we watch their water-music,
clutching at our pearls, baring
our teeth, decisively believing
in the tactile strength
of glass