Poem by Justin Karcher
Inspired by "Rock of Ages" at D'Youville's Kavinoky Theatre
Ever since I moved back to the Elmwood Village,
I’m constantly wondering who’s building this city.
Always in a state of limbo. You can’t tell anymore
what’s being constructed and what’s being demolished.
It depends on your state of mind
and I’ve gotta take a little time to think things over.
There’s been heartache and pain. Running with the shadows.
Some people I talk to, they’re so tired of being broken
that they become frozen in time. Hanging on the promises
in songs of yesterday. Eventually, they become streetlights.
Their shine no longer belongs to them. It’s not like living
in paradise, but I won’t stop believing that someday this movie will end.
Imagine just motoring along and doing the same old shit
when suddenly you hear Buffalo cry out: “I’m not gonna take it!”
Then the sounds of a stampede, hooves on asphalt
and overgrown grass. Change has never been this fast.
You quickly diffuse the love-bomb you’ve been holding
in your heart. You unpick a fight and stare down
the long road to recovery. Thousands of inner sparks
coming together as one. More alive than ever before.
The streetlights are on the move. It’s all so blinding
and you can’t see what’s right in front of you,
but you follow them anyway. Until you find yourself
in a sleazy dive bar at the edge of the river.
There’s music everywhere. Cowgirls using tweezers
to pull out their splinters. Hangmen in the bathroom
softening their wrecking balls. What happens
when you lose the beat and want it back.
When you find yourself home again on a ship of fools.
Rocking and rolling and trying to get better every day.
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