Time belongs to night,
The future to the dark,
Between the moon and stars,
Our lives are in shade,
Disordered and cluttered,
We don't know where to start,
Caught in frozen waters,
No direction, eyes too weak,
Lights drop into the puddles,
And fizzle out with no more,
Than an unseen ripple.

Seeing in my reflection,
Someone I don't know,
I used to see them everyday -
But that was long ago.

The sadness in his face,
Is matched by only sighs,
And the heavy will to keep on,
With weary, tiring eyes.

The flute calls out, leaping across bar-lines,
A girl, her eyes closed and hair loose,
Swaying in time, the instrument resting below her gentle lips,
Using her precious breath to grace the air,
With a pure beauty, as if calling to the rivers,
As if those notes were crafted for these hills,
And separated long ago,
But their connection only strengthened,
And now her breaths stir the grass,
And brush against the leaves.

Waiting, dry,
Stale silence sticks to my throat,
Flows through my head,
And sits in my skull:
Softly hissing,
Whines shake along my jaw,
Trembling across my neck.

In my solitude,
I punctuate the hollow room with
Tapping of fingers,
Fidgeting for the folly
Of pointless chatter
But finding only the grease and grime,
Of long gone dates and dateless days.

The counter holds more stories, but we forgot them all.

Falling foul to playing the part,
Two intense, no longer,
Now three-to-one,
And losing sight of the quarters that were mine,
Yet perfectly rising, harmony bold,
Still half-baked, at least in my head,
Not ready for heaven, and many more to go,
Before redivided, yet still the same
Purr against my heart, a nudge back,
And I stretch those old-new fingers once more.

With the ears still ringing, the lights come up,
And the crowd shuffles drunk to the doors,
The haze and blare of the show is gone,
replaced with cigarette smoke
and chatter.

And as the last few stumble out into the fresh winter air,
each with their throat stinging from
singing too hard,
that moment is shared.

They all hold the memories of a few hours,
Where nothing mattered but
honest angry songs and
having fun.

And in an hour, perhaps they'll all have headaches
or collapse, shattered wrecks on the streets,
but not one will regret that shared
moment of defiance.

A night of standing up and believing we don't have to
let the miserable world get to us.

An evening together, and for no purpose, and for only one reason:
Music.

Yes, we believe even now,
Just one defeat will not tear this movement down,
Perhaps it's the drink in our blood,
But we stand unafraid.

Yes, we keep on even so,
Rewriting all the rules, change all that we know,
Fill the streets with all the people on their feet,
And we'll remain.

And we'll rise with the colours and love in our hearts
Beating fast, beating clear,
And we'll stand hand in hand, arm in arm and we'll shout out the truth:
We won't let hate near,
And we'll dream of a world we long to see,
We believe we can let in the hope,
Let out the fear.

Now we gather ourselves,
Prepare for the night,
We won't fall to the dark,
We will bask in the light,
Even now, we're growing stronger with each simple breath in our lungs,
We stand true, we stand and fight.

We are broken, we are weary,
We are burdened by our fear,
We are searching for support,
But our allies disappear.

There is no use in pretending,
That the road we walk is short,
We can't let one setback stop us,
We must keep our goal in thought.
Don't give in,
We can win,
We must keep on believing.

We are chasing a beam; a glowing path in the dark
but as we start to get close, we're growing further apart
we're not leading the charge; we're falling into retreat
this is the hour we fall, the day of defeat,
we cannot go on if we just go on to lose
this is our chance, time for us to choose.

We carry love while they bicker and bite.
We share a hug while they share a light.
The fumes in the night are filling the air
but we are a people, and people should care
when their fellows are bleeding and scared,
so we offer all that we can spare.

We hold the flag of justice high,
with all its colours to the sky.
And though we cannot promise new lives,
we can build a home for all to find.
It's time we pull together not apart,
Remember, we all have a heart,
This is our moment to decide,
What kind of world we'd like to start.

A word.
Just one.
Repeating.
My vision blurring.
Blinking fast.
A warmth tingling across my skin.

A voice.
Not mine.
Repeating.
My head hazy.
Confusion.
But feel a clear change.

No more.
Same old.
Repeating.
Do as I say.
Speak up.
Be who I promised.

Back to reality,
One show over, another months away,
Refocus efforts, catch up those things we
brushed aside in our haste and worry.

Back to normal,
Though the memories remain strong,
Around me the stage-lights have faded,
Time to return to monotony.

Back to fear,
That spark in my nerves growing now,
That shudder in my shoulders as it nears,
Embark, escape, evade? Lose touch?

The applause still echoes in my head,
Close my eyes and their smiles, their tears, their laughter returns.
The 'thank you' sticks in my throat,
I did no more than have fun, but they used that moment,
And made it mean everything,
Made celebration into a statement,
A clarification,
Acceptance, pride.
And as the elation fades, the sun-hazed evening remains,
The shining words whisper in my ear,
The spotlight still warms me and fills my head with freedom.
This is success.
Worked for, bought with effort and
time and stress and plans.
We did it. We did it. We did it.

Chaos,
Crashing past before my still breaths,
While the rushed-off-feet rush to meet their dead-
-lines I stand firm.
My task yet to begin.
Slowly, I release the air through my mouth,
Three black-shirted figures striding, a quick
glance at me, the slimmest of smiles, then
gone.
A microphone placed in my gloved hand, an explanation,
Then I prepare, press my thumb and slide: 0 - mute - ON
My voice resonates, all that can be done is done,
The lights frantically tracing their carefully programmed paths,
Now it is my time, the closest of the front-of-housers,
The undeserving star, but it is my task:
*"Ladies and Gentlemen..."