Very eclipsy, nice zooming-in and zooming-out effect of our little place among the big scheme of things.

Song a week 2024 #15 - Prompts: 
"Under the Rainbow" and Children's Music

The solar eclipse was this week. It was just a small bite out of the moon in my location, but I remember the totality experience from 2017. 

So I wrote a kid's song about the eclipse, and "under the rainbow" just seemed to fit.

Photo by Justin M. Dickey

Under the Rainbow and Over the Moon

For r/songaweek Week 19: Lost Dog Laika. This song was inspired by both the Laika prompt and the novel Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis.

Lyrics:

I am the chosen one
My good is greater
Now that I'm blasting off
It hits me like a trailer
The rest of my life...
A million miles from home...

Somebody said it was a suicide mission
I said "I know" it was a lie of omission
I didn't consider there'd be time to regret

I remember my fathers tears
My sister screaming "How you think I feel?" 
And the love of my life stoically turned away
"How could you do it?" "You volunteered?"
Can't you see I want it something fierce
To be greater, well, greater than good

Now I'm homesick as a dog
Laika come pick me up

Plucked from obscurity
They said I'll make the books
Praised my maturity
And offered me free stuff
The rest of my life...
Signed, sealed, delivered...

I was duly warned, I wasn't forced
I made my bed outta zero g thorns
Now everybody's watching on TV

I remember my fathers tears
My sister screaming "How you think I feel?" 
And the love of my life stoically turned away
"How could you do it?" "You volunteered?"
Can't you see I want it something fierce
To be greater, well, greater than good

Now I'm homesick as a dog
Laika come pick me up

Laila pick me up
You're a good girl, you're a great dog
My bones are the new space junk
You can play with them if you want

Greater Good (Laika)

written for r/songaweek 2024 - week 19 (Theme: Lost Dog Laika)

-Laika-

A bullet race across
the bending pond
We play with pawns
A dog sees God

The dare to catch
a sky of stars
We make our move
by chasing cars

No skin to make the call
No next of kin
A vagabond, a ball of tin

This tiny room
in endless space
will be the place
will be the place
will be the place...

You're on your way
pat the night and the day

Laika

The song of the week theme was about Laika who was a dog that was sent into space on a one way suicide mission. So I wrote the first verse about that and then the other verses about how we treat animals badly.  I'm not a vegan because I am also an inferior  like the final verse covers, but I definitely think it's a good thing to do.

The music is pretty rough because I just write any old crap for song of the week. 

Inferior Being

Superior being
Dying in space
Not a mistake
Only part of a race
No food for days
To squeeze her in place

If she had a voice
To communicate
Inferior being
Would still find a way
To not hear her pain
Or shoe it away

The funny thing is
They think they're the highest
The funny thing is
They think they're the highest
It’s like they're being watched
And life is a big test
The craziest part
They think that they’re acing it

Superior being
Pacing his cage
The bitter taste
Of the rust on his chains
Longing for space
And the other apes

They teach him a trick
Then beat him for it
Inferior being
Has got a big stick
So he thinks he's the shit
Licking his lips

The funny thing is
He thinks he's the highest
The funny thing is
He thinks he's the highest
It’s like he's being watched
And life is a big test
The craziest part
He thinks that he’s acing it

Scrambling to heaven
Trampling to hell
They reproduce like rabbits

Trying to save the planet
By trying to spare themselves
Is healing fruit with maggots

Superior being
Scraped off a plate
Would you take comfort
In going to waste
Or that they had prayed
Thanked god for your taste

Inferior beings
Lie to themselves
Say that your stupid
With no sense of self
And your corpse on the shelf
Is needed for health

The funny thing is
We think we’re the highest
The funny thing is
We think we’re the highest
It’s like we’re being watched
And life is a big test
The craziest part
We think that we’re acing it

Inferior Being (for song a week theme Laika)

I want to join the community
cause I want the joy and the beauty but
Something in me's scared of being hurt
I know fear of rejection
Same old past projection
But that don't make it any easier

It takes a leap of faith
It takes a leap of faith
It takes a leap of faith
Every time

I know that you long for intimacy
can't seem to find the recipe
let them see, if they would see you right
If YOU let it go, will we catch you now?
YOU’ll never know til you try it out
Always seems a little fight or flight

Chorus 

If they Don't CATCH me
I will have to catch myself 
Oh god please catch me,
help me catch myself
If they don't LOVE me
I will have to love myself
Oh god, please love me
Help me love myself

Leap Of Faith

Song-A-Week #20: Something Borrowed

Lyrics:
[verse #1]
Something shifted in the seasons, feel the warmth on my twigs
Did you ride the westward wind to build a nest with my sticks?
Filled with joy you rest your wings on me

Black and blue does not mean pain when I see your grand feathers
Something ‘bout your upright crest makes my life simply better
Roots don’t hold me down, I’m feelin’ free

[chorus]
Oh, my jay, my Steller’s Jay
Oh, my jay, my Steller’s Jay
Please don’t fly away

[verse #2]
Sing to me that melody that you’ve hidden in your heart
Beautiful and sweet and pure, I wait for its impart
Love is all that matters in this tune

Morning comes and brings the sun that pulls you out of my leaves,
Still and silent as I am, my trunk is filled with grief
Waiting til I see you in the moon

steller's jay

https://i.ibb.co/DMqhg23/house-of-the-rising-sun.png

House of the Rising Sun

For r/songaweek Week 20: Something Borrowed.

Lyrics:

Baby, can’t you see
I’m lying straight through my teeth
He bought you a diamond ring
I say “congrats” but my stomach’s sinking

And I just can’t ask myself
Why you want someone else
And you drunken confession
Sent me to heaven now it’s straight to hell

You’ll get
All dressed up in tulle
You’re looking mighty pretty
And the sky is bright and blue
And I won’t
See ya there tomorrow
But baby at your wedding
My heart’s your something borrowed

Hoo oo, woo oo oo

Gadget on your registry
Do you think you’ll use it or is it a dream?
Best friends, are you a team?
When the crowd’s not around are you thinking of me?

And I just can’t stop myself
Cracking on bout that night out
When you turned it all upside down
Then you left me stranded on the far side of town

You’ll get
All dressed up in tulle
You’re looking mighty pretty
And the sky is bright and blue
And I won’t
See ya there tomorrow
But baby at your wedding
My heart’s your something borrowed

Something Borrowed

A short instrumental track loosely based on Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G Minor, Op. 23, No. 5

Rachmanin Off

The music playing in your head when you're waiting for something on a sunny day

Under the Rainbow and Over the Moon

DharmikaMusic

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