“Threadbare" uses text from Elsa Gidlow's debut poetry collection, "On a Grey Thread" (1923). Written while the poet was living in New York, "On a Grey Thread" is a groundbreaking work of poetry, the first in North American history to openly express lesbian desire. Both personal and political, Gidlow's poems express the poet's complex feelings as a young woman whose political ideology and sexual identity ran counter to the traditional values of her time. The poems reflect yearning and loss, they leave the reader with more questions than answers. They represent the bravery and isolation of openly baring a soul to the public. This song cycle is for all voices and may be performed in any octave.