ONE WIRE (STEAM-CIRCUS DESERT OPERA)
[Verse 1]
Under a blood-orange, clockwork sky tonight
There’s one brass wire on a cracked porch light
Goggles on the nail and the sand bone-dry
Dust devils bow as the wagons roll by
Ringmaster hat on a crooked peg
Boot prints fading where the shadows beg
Steam hisses softly from the well-worn rail
That one wire hums a forgotten tale
[Chorus]
One wire
Buzzing like a ghosted choir
One wire
Sings of soot and smoke and hire
Bent and bright, with desert rust and grime
Holding up the ordinary time
One wire
[Verse 2]
(Spoken, Shakespearean)
Good friends, attend: upon this humble stage
A wire holds back the mischief of an age
Behold its sag, its stubborn, shining thread
Where dreams queue up in single file instead
(Spoken, Robotic Weather)
Desert forecast: copper, wind, and sand
Scattered miracles across the land
Stray confetti showers by the mine cart tracks
Sixty percent chance of circus coming back
(Spoken, Carnival Barker)
Step right up, step right up, don’t be shy!
See the wire that refuses to comply!
Through the hail, through the heat, through the dust and years,
It has hauled up half this town and their quiet little fears!
[Chorus]
One wire
Toupee of the porch empire
One wire
Fence between the calm and choir
Bent and bright, with every nick and stain
Still the backbone of a very normal lane
One wire
[Bridge]
Yodel, monks, in the sandstorm choir (yo-le-lay!)
Whisper, pirates, of a small clothesline
Barbershop saints stack a major chord
On a sock that dried just in time
No grand omen
No mystic sign
Just a strip of metal
Doing its line
People boast
And people stray
But the mail still hangs there every day
[Final Chorus]
(Children’s choir: a single held note)
(Spoken, Shakespearean over swelling orchestra)
One wire,
That bears the socks, the bills, the rain‑soaked flyers
(Spoken, Robotic Weather)
Local bulletin: hearts remain attached
Route of daily errands, fully matched
(Spoken, Carnival Barker)
One wire!
For every lost key, every grocery bag!
For the hat that flew and the coat that sagged!
Through the cold and summer kitchen heat
Through the thunder in the cobbled street
One wire
Every scratch and every scuff in sight
Caught another very average night
Holding birthdays, notes, and quiet desire
With overblown fanfare for a clothesline wire
Just one wire
(Hand claps, kazoos, and distant backward bells inside the mind)