A ballad

I don't know why I'm up here

I mean on stage

So many years, a whole life

On my dead case

In and out of spotlights

Washing over me

Plugging in instruments

No monitors

A couple is kissing by the exit door

A bigger part of me wants to come down

But if I do

I can't come, come back up

I hold my mic stand

Push things around

Roll in the cables

Send in the sounds

I couldn't tell you why I keep singing, only how

You said your tinnitus

Is a note through your head

Singing a jetstream from alive to dead

Seeing to seer

I summon the dead back

To my, my body

I open my mouth

Sing to the light

Pick the darkest vowel

A for alright

It's so dumb and so me to think this means anything

But it must be better

To die in sound than to die dead

Dead, right?

Can you hear my voice?

I don't know why I'm up here

I mean on stage

It's the only page