the balloons are still out the next morning
holding hands with handrails of the big stair
cinderella lost her crystal shoes before midnight

hot humid air marks the beginning of another summer
the last shade of light still lingers on the stage from the night before
a ballerina’s grace

very soon they’ll remove the posters
redecorate the backstage
and probably reinvent the observatory
that had been sitting there old and dusty for fifty years
you once promised to take me there
now i have to go by myself

it’s just me, hollow chested beside the piano
still singing blues that becomes crusty over the four years
now i have to go by myself