Do the Dance — Sid Sriram

#365Songs: January 1st

I’m not all into the ‘New Year New Me’ brand campaign New Age crackpot nonsense, but I do believe in mindset shifts and transitional moments. If not now, when. We don’t have to wait until a calendar flips a page, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make the most of the moment when it does. Change the mood, kill the bad vibe, try a different dance with another year.

Fault lines older than sunshine, covered in gold
I still don’t know how i’m getting home
No i’m not ready for peace yet, deep in my soul
Vices scream, no i’m not letting go
Do the dance, as we fall
Never know
Nothing’s normal, it never will be, it never was
Several moments pass and fade to camouflage
We will be wilting
Wilting under the sunlight, like a corsage
Thinking about the things and all the ways they were

What’s a resolution if not a brief spark of optimism, a hopeful nod into another unknown. What’s hope without grief? What’s grief without hope?

Do the dance, as we fall
Never know
Do the dance, as we fall
Never know
Never know, never know

January has long been my albatross, a month that starts with do-over optimism and ends in loss, defeat, crisis. Restless nights as dark and long as the days are short with light.

Everywhere i go
I’m further from the truth
Do the dance, (do the dance) as we fall
Never know, never know

I’ve long been drawn to the myth of Sisyphus, and as January is my boulder I’m still here pushing uphill against the wind, against history, against the voice that keeps me awake at night.

Do the dance, as we fall
Never know
Do the dance, as we fall
Never know
Never know, never know

If I’ve learned anything in this life it’s that artists create during the darkest days, when the world falls apart. As cruel and inhumane wars linger on, as a spiral into Fascism looms in this election year, as we all wander the streets in search of our post-pandemic selves, there is still music. There is still beauty. There is still a hill, a boulder, and a little bit of hope.