rock play by candle light

The light faded silently over the ocean
Drops of ran fell
Inside the red of a December sunset
Spaced out n spread out
Separating themselves n falling like heavy tears
I strap myself into my 12 string
Strum a few warm up ideas
Look out over the sea of candles n fluorescent tubes
Children stare up from the concrete steps below me
Their tired eyes wide with magic
Lost in the commotion n singing
N too many sugary fire drinks
Smiling at my associates
I mutter some hopefully meaningful words into the mic
About drought n friendship n hope
I strum the opening rhythm
The chords sound amazing through the foldback
I sing, waltzing through the words with a mixture of fear and exhilarations
JA is next
She sings her bit with poise and awesome pitch
Then CK works her magic
Sound dripping from her vocal chords
Like honey
by the time we get to my Bono impersonation
The band is pumping
“Feed the world”
candles waving
brass chiming on riffs
JMc and I sing into a mic together
Which must have looked strange
Two old blokes trying to be young hipsters again
The band dials down a touch
The crowd chants
“let them know its Christmas time again”
then its over
bit of cheering and clapping
blow kisses at my missus
back to the carols
energy flees my body like a matador after the chase
a few more tunes
kids dancing
people singing n eating n drinking
the end
another carols done n over
walk to my tired littlies
greet my parents
who never did get my rock god antics
pick up the wine n olive n over stuff
carry the weary ones
head to the car
a slow quiet drive home past houses of lights
fireworks along the coast
a coffee
book
bed

quite a night actually.