Feb 2022 piano female vocals pensive melancholy synth simple
This space journey is coming to me out of order, but I suppose there's no order really. It's very nonlinear, much like a long journey would feel, I guess.
(See this year's "Speed of Light" and "Launching" for more of this story.)
So this is a letter from home that's being sent to someone in our ark of travelers. In my mind, it's some years after launch, so its recipient is mostly ageless and traveling through vast amounts of space in slumber. The writer is at home, maybe writing as a child plays on an antique piano.
There's a sad simplicity to this piece because, by the time this letter is collected in the radio files across the vast darkness, our recipient will have been traveling for decades. I don't know when she'll be awakened and when she might download her messages.
(And I haven't decided if it's a kindness or cruelty to send them.)
Perhaps by the time she hears them, the storms will have completely ceased, and the world our adventurers left will be greener, better, and kinder than the land of glass, stone, and heat it was.
At least it sounds like it is heading that way.
And maybe the butterflies will still be doing ok.
The Butterflies Are Doing Ok
They said
To write to you
They would send it today
And you would get it
Though you're quite far away
I don’t know what exactly that
I want to say…
Um
The butterflies are doing ok.
The storms are breaking
I’ve seen the sky twice
When the rain isn’t burning
It’s really quite nice
There are a few places
Where our children play
And
The butterflies are doing ok
I miss the blue lightning
A little sometimes
Though I know that
I shouldn’t but
I do
I watch the grey brightening
a little more each day
But still, I wish...
I could
have gone too
They said
To write to you
They would send it today
And you would get it
Though you're quite far away
I don’t know what exactly
That I want to say…
Um
The butterflies are doing ok.
The sea crops are in bloom
The algae’s growing too
Oh, and we crossed over
Salt lakes in a balloon!
And the quietness at night
I cannot convey.
And
The butterflies are doing ok.
Mom got a greenhouse
And I'm tending to the fish.
There’s no shortage of salt
Everything’s tasty-ish.
It’s gotten much better
Since you went away
And
The butterflies are doing ok
When you get this letter
I guess we’ll be gone
Maybe you’ll have a home though
With plants and a big lawn
Oh, I guess my bandwidth's short
And I’m done for the day
But
The butterflies are doing ok.
@miga Feb 2022
poignant, almost heartbreaking song, between people who will never see each other again. The detail of the butterflies works so well. So simple and beautiful.
@wylddandelyon Feb 2022
Oh, wow, this is cool. I like butterflies, but you get the feeling of separation very clear in this, both the words and the performance.