Once is the first single from my podcast episode, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.

Once

Once I was in love with my future.
It was lit like a Japanese city.
My life was charmed.
I got into fistfights
I turned on a dime.
I was fiercely optimistic.
I was the luckiest man alive.

Once, I was shot out of a cannon,
I landed on the moon,
I killed seven with one blow,
I balanced ten torpedoes
on the tip of my tongue like a sailor.

The future was up for grabs,
The past was simply a benign ghost
living in the back of my head.

Then one night,
the gods had had enough
and manufactured a monster
to distress my every dream.
Soon the days muddled into months.
Was I half asleep or half-awake?
No sound was distinct.
All the colors on the wheel
ran together into a bleak, unlovely gray.

Now, a complete disappointment,
I let down my guard,
and gave up the ghost.
I was surprised to find myself
eager for doom.

The Future reared up for a final foray,
but changed its mind.
It came inside, and stayed inside.

Once I felt certain the Future
would make the Past pay.
It would shove its face into the mud
until it whimpered, and slinked off
into the dark woods forever.

Once, I saw the moon disappear
like it had been deleted.

Once, as per your request,
I dreamed a little dream of you.

Words and music © 2021 by Scott Taylor
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