Joshua Musicant – Solus Surge (Wake Up Alone) It’s ok in the day Bent double, old beggars in sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags . . . Til on haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began . . . Men marched asleep, lost in their boots, Limped on, blood-shod, gone lame, gone blind; Drunk with fatigue; deafened to gas, shells dropping softly behind. Fiercely in dreams, seizing of guts, Flooding with dread Soaked in soul, swimming of eyes put to bed Pouring all over them, moon spilling in And they wake up alone . . . Ecstasy fumbling Fitting clumsy helmets in time, Someone yelling and stumbling Floundering, men in fire or lime, Dim through misty panes, a thick green light, As under green seas and drowning from sight, Some smothering dream, sensing to pace Behind the wagon, helplessly flung in, And watch white eyes writhing in faces, Like devils sick of sin. Fiercely in dreams, seizing of guts, Flooding with dread Soaked in soul, swimming of eyes put to bed Pouring all over them, moon spilling in And they wake up alone . . . Hear every jolt, blood gargling of corrupted lungs, Obscene as illness, bitter as cud, Incurable sores, innocent tongues, Friends would not tell with any zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, Senex est: Dulce et decorum Est Pro patria mori. Fiercely in dreams, seizing of guts, Flooding with dread Soaked in soul, swimming of eyes put to bed Pouring all over them, moon spilling in And they wake up alone . . . And they wake up alone . . . And they wake up alone . . .

Mike Ricci – Forever for Awhile Key: Open D (1, 4, 5) Intro D (Verse 1 Guy) G D He bought a ring and he/ made you sing every night G D Then you were forsaken/ when he left you high and dry A G D Well, come with me and I’ll love you forever for awhile (Repeat with harmonies) A G D Come with me and I’ll/love you forever for awhile (Verse 2 Gal) G D You built a home/ but now you’re alone every night G D Ya say you were forsaken/ and that she left you high and dry A G D Well, I won’t leave if you love me forever for awhile (Repeat with harmonies) A G D I won’t leave if you love me forever for awhile (Instrumental/solo) (Verse 3 Guy and Gal) G D I’m feelin’ warm and fuzzy/ and my heart is open wide G D But there’s a risk we’re takin’/ This love may leave us high and dry A G D But you and me will be in love forever for awhile (Repeat with harmonies) A G D You and me will be in love forever for awhile (I’ll love ya if ya love me back)

Margaret Bryant – Dear Gov. Pat McCory Dear Governor Pat McCory Look with me into the void Can’t you put your bigotry to rest? Your state hates you, don’t you know? Or did someone not tell you So what the hell have you brought us to? Fuck your homophobic bomb How you never admit your wrong Guess you’ve always done your job that way But don’t think you’ll shut us up We’ll scream until your hands are up And HB2 lay in your grave with you We’ll do much worse than fork your lawn Consider this our warning song Your god can’t save your public policy So fuck yourself and HB2 And everything you’ve put us through You’ll be up for reelection soon So get the fuck out of our bathrooms Dear Governor Pat McCory Look with us into the void Can’t you put your bigotry to rest? So fuck yourself and HB2 And everything you’ve put us through You’ll be up for reelection soon So get the fuck out of our bathrooms

Megan Heise – One Bigot, One Old Love, a Ton of Fear Intro: I wanna tell you a story Bout a song I had to choose Verse 1: So I’m thinking what to perform for y’all And I’m thinking — let’s do something cool And I’m thinking Let’s put some poems to music Let’s take it a little ways back Let’s do Dante’s Inferno (HOT!) So I goes to my favorite translation Of a triplet in canto 28 Circle 8, bolgia 9, the sowers of discord It says: between his legs all his red guts hung With the heart, the lungs, the liver, the gullbladder And the sac that passes shit to the bung Pretty great right? I look it up online to get the translation right The website says you know who this is about? I said NO I read this 10 years ago, all I remember’s I baked a cake about it Website said, well you’ll wanna know then Said, you’ll wanna know it’s about the Prophet Mohammed I said well fuck I’m not okay with that The website said, it’s true I said I’m not gonna align myself with that So out the door Dante went So I look through my other ideas I’m thinking, I’ve got all kinds of love poetry shit I’m in love with this dude back in New York Already married – monogamous (BOOO!) Doesn’t matter to me tho Of course not I’ve written aaaaaaall about it, you know I think, I could write some letters Maybe like breaking ties emotionally But it feels kinda lame, you know? You can say it, I KNOW So I think to myself Maybe I wanna do something else I said yeahhhh I’m tired of writing this guy poetry Lord, I am So out the door he went Everyone say Whatchu gonna write? I say, look man I’m fresh out of ideas They say, what you got? Chorus: One bigot, one old love, a ton of feeeear Well I can’t adapt Dante cause he’s a bigot, I found I saw for real what he was sayin and I turned right around don’t wanna write no more unrequited love poems Wanna find something that don’t deal with no tropes My predicament’s tough, I’m sure you can see clear I got one bigot, one old love, a ton of fear One bigot, an old love, a ton of fear Verse 3: So I’m sitting down on my zabuton In the Naropa Performing Arts Center thinking What’m I gonna do for this song? I’m thinking bout these old poems I’ve got About depression and decomposition Maybe put em to music But I’m scared, you see, cuz All I’ve got is a bigot All I’ve got is an old love All I’ve got is a lot of fear Everybody’s asking what I’ll do for my song They say, what you got? Chorus: One bigot, one old love, a ton of feeeear Well I can’t adapt Dante cause he’s a bigot, I found I saw for real what he was sayin and I turned right around don’t wanna write no more unrequited love poems Wanna find something that don’t deal with no tropes My predicament’s tough, I’m sure you can see clear I got one bigot, one old love, a ton of fear Instrumental Solo Verse 4: Now by this time I’m thinking Let’s just get meta Let’s get reeeeeeal meta, now So I write this song about All the other songs I couldn’t bring myself to write And I put it all to a tune that a white dude ripped off of African American musicians So I learned So it’s real imperfect and a little problematic There’s one for your bingo card (BINGO!) But it’s all I’ve got because the other options are still Chorus: One bigot, one old love, a ton of feeeear Well I can’t adapt Dante cause he’s a bigot, I found I saw for real what he was sayin’ and I turned right around don’t wanna write no more unrequited love poems Wanna find something that don’t deal with no tropes My predicament’s tough, I’m sure you can see clear I got one bigot, one old love, a ton of fear One bigot, an old love, a ton of fear

Travis Klepman – Throw the Old Poetry Away We’ll be alight if the ink stays in the pen We’ll be alight if the ink stays in the pen We’ll be alight if the ink stays in the pen And we’ll never write again. Oh, we’ll throw the old poetry away We’ll throw the old poetry away We’ll throw the old poetry away And we’ll never write again. We’ll be better if we tear out ev’ry page We’ll be better if we tear out ev’ry page We’ll be better if we tear out ev’ry page And we’ll never write again. And we’ll throw the old poetry away We’ll throw the old poetry away We’ll throw the old poetry away And we’ll never write again. We’ll be just fine if we burn our journals now We’ll be just fine if we burn our journals now We’ll be just fine if we burn our journals now And we’ll never write again. And we’ll throw the old poetry away We’ll throw the old (poetry away) We’ll throw the old poetry away And we’ll never write again. We’ll learn to tell the truth about ourselves We’ll learn to tell the truth about ourselves We’ll learn to tell the truth about ourselves And we’ll all be poets soon. And we’ll throw the old (poetry away) We’ll throw the old poetry away We’ll throw the old poetry away And we’ll never write again. And we’ll throw the old (poetry away) We’ll throw the old (poetry away) We’ll throw the old poetry away And we’ll never write again.