Words seem to scurry, like little white mice, Bringing lyrical tidbits that lure and entice They hum in the morning and sing in the walls As the dusk like a curtain at evening falls Here little mouse, I will do you no harm, Come sit on my hand and come run up my arm You needn't be frightened, for music transcends Sing to me, song-mouse and let us be friends. I pluck and I hum and I pause and resume, Breathing possible notes, like a waft of perfume, Spinning from nothing a musical strand Leashing the song-mice that come to my hand. Here little mouse, I will do you no harm, Come sit on my hand and come run up my arm You needn't be frightened, for music transcends Sing to me, song-mouse and let us be friends. One little song-mouse can fill out a line And one more can make melodies dance and entwine Three can breathe harmony into a tune Four can pull epics or sing down the moon. Here little mouse, I will do you no harm, Come sit on my hand and come run up my arm You needn't be frightened, for music transcends Sing to me, song-mouse and let us be friends.

When you come to a convention, step right up and take a turn There’s a hidden infrastructure, with a lot to see and learn Make new friends with one quick offer that is certain to endear Wouldn’t it be fun to volunteer? Take a shift at registration and say hi to all your friends Or help us out at teardown, when this great convention ends It’s not a huge commitment, just pitch in and give a cheer Wouldn’t it be fun to volunteer? Mind the consuite for an hour for a little change of pace. Are you really good at Tetris? Help us pack the storage space! We can always use a person who is good at moving gear— Wouldn’t it be fun to volunteer? So much good will and knowledge our convention scene can boast But it won’t be here forever if we all decide to coast. Come help us do it better when we put it on next year; Wouldn’t it be fun to volunteer? Wouldn't it be fun to volunteer!

I married an Alpha Werewolf, Knowing he was a were; I knew it had ramifications, But how did I wind up here? Reviewing the life decisions That lead me to burn my boats While all of the werewolves are running around After miniature zombie goats Miniature zombie goats. Miniature zombie goats; Yesterday night they were dead on the ground But now they are feeling their oats. All of the werewolves are running around After Miniature Zombie Goats. If you thought goats were trouble With one thought in their brain I promise it doesn’t get better Once they can feel no pain One got into the water. Catch it before it bloats— All of the werewolves are running around after After miniature zombie Goats Miniature zombie goats. Miniature zombie goats; Yesterday night they were dead on the ground But now they are feeling their oats. All of the werewolves are running around After Miniature Zombie Goats. I don’t really mind looking silly That’s not why I’m mad today These adorable critters were somebody’s pets And someone is going to pay They bleat and they snap and they scramble While somewhere a sorcerer gloats All of the werewolves are running around after After miniature zombie goats. Miniature zombie goats. Miniature zombie goats; Yesterday night they were dead on the ground But now they are feeling their oats. All of the werewolves are running around After Miniature Zombie Goats. Miniature zombie goats. Miniature zombie goats; Yesterday night they were dead on the ground But now they are feeling their oats. All of the werewolves are running around After Miniature Zombie Goats.

Walking out from Wintress Maiden Past the dunes to Swancomb Head; Rowan in your fist and pocket Guards against the Drowned Dead. In this lovely desolation, Welcomes, warnings, interwove-- Have a care or come to grief while Walking over Battle Cove. On the cliffs the wind will whisper False direction in your ear; Locals have defaced the signs to Turn away the ones they fear. In this lovely desolation, Welcomes, warnings, interwove-- Have a care or come to grief while Walking over Battle Cove. Carry iron, salt and silver, Where the winds and waters churn; With a kiss from one who loves you You’ll walk safe and safe return. In this lovely desolation, Welcomes, warnings, interwove-- Have a care or come to grief while Walking over Battle Cove.

Right out of the blue, and in public too, Mad at yourself but you turn it my way; I can’t set it right, you know I hate to fight I just give in but it isn’t okay. I’m not gonna say nothing Oh-- I’ve got nothing to say To answer tonight, Would just start a fight; When you’re feeling this way-- No answer is right-- Someone’s gotta be patient, How long is someone gonna be me? I could always decline and its not a good sign that I Find I’m wondering how to get free You lay into me, like an enemy, Like the face you see isn’t a friend. As you remonstrate, I just abdicate, Stare out the window, and wait for the end I’m not gonna say nothing Oh-- I’ve got nothing to say To answer tonight, Would just start a fight; When you’re feeling this way-- No answer is right-- Someone’s gotta be patient, How long is someone gonna be me? I could always decline and its not a good sign that I Find I’m thinking how to get free Practiced harmonies filling my memories Trying my heart to ease, peace to attain There’s no way to win; all the time I put in I have to chew off to be free of this pain I’m not gonna say nothing Oh-- I’ve got nothing to say To answer tonight, Would just start a fight; When you’re feeling this way-- No answer is right-- Someone’s gotta be patient, How long is someone gonna be me? I could always decline and its not a good sign that I Find I’m planning how to get free

I found a river in my head Like a slender silver thread Cascading in a shining spate Where the sable rocks await In the web of light I read my fate Never knowing what we gain or lose Choosing blindly, still we have to choose. And like a dawn-lit pyramid I see revealed what once was hid The grief and care that might have been The love and joy I didn’t win The other roads I never did begin Never knowing what we gain or lose Choosing blindly still we have to choose. I hear it with my dreaming eye A call with which I must comply An urgency that must be met A duty, or an unpaid debt Again I sink in dream, and I forget. Never knowing what we gain or lose, Choosing blindly, still we have to choose. Never knowing what we gain or lose, Choosing blindly, still we have to choose.

O the daffodils are daff-ing With the little budlets laughing They soon will spit in half-ing When they blossom like a cheer When the daffodils are dilling And the tulips showing willing And spring is coming here Still we thrill when silly little rills Overspill with frilly daffodils When the tulips are a-blooming And the kitty cats are zooming We are sure that spring is looming On the far side of the hill Then the birds will all be warning And their foes likewise performing Way too early in the morning And we’ll wish that they would chill. Still we thrill when silly little rills Overspill with frilly daffodils Still we thrill when silly little rills Overspill with frilly daffodils

A road by nature is a place Where one can cross both time and space A way between, that feels the tread Of both the living and the dead Where both can leave a lasting trace Where one may walk the ancient ways Dating back to Roman days And where a bridge has fallen prone Find great dragon-teeth of stone While on the banks the white sheep graze Or meet, where winds are winter-wild A walker with a bundled child Who may return when they are grown Leading children of their own Here where the years are reconciled And turning home when dusk is nigh In the shadows we may spy In shawls and cloaks of days of yore The shades of those who passed before May pass again before our eye So let us leave our safe abode To offer what the land is owed Crossing space and crossing time Both prosaic and sublime That is the nature of a road.

At the battle’s end we found When we stood to count the cost Blood upon the barren ground—
 Silver, clay, and frost As if in grief for hearts that tore, By autumn storms the trees are tossed We know the wages born of war; Silver, clay, and frost The flower of our youth lie dead White-haired parents mourn the lost Fields unplanted, vows unsaid— Silver, clay, and frost. And when the stones so bare and bleak With time and rain grow worn and mossed Only these are left to speak-- Silver, clay and frost.

The world is running out of time, As a river runs downhill, The world is running out of time, We need a better paradigm. The drive to change it calls us still For if we do not, who will? The bigotry we thought was done, As a river runs downhill, The bigotry we thought was done, Is marching bare-faced in the sun. The drive to change it calls us still For if we do not, who will? As drone and missile fill the sky, As a river runs downhill, As drone and missile fill the sky, In dust and wreckage children die. The drive to change it calls us still For if we do not, who will? As we wait the planet warms, As a river runs downhill, As we wait the planet warms, Fueling fires, droughts and storms. The drive to change it calls us still For if we do not, who will? We can fight and heal and tend As a river runs downhill We can fight and heal and tend Which means these wrongs are ours to mend The drive to change it calls us still For if we do not, who will?

Entropy runs through the world that it binds Powering life as a mainspring unwinds. It won’t last forever; we know, for our sins, Live while you can because entropy wins The forces in balance, like sunset and dawn Are what made life happen and why it goes on But even the sun has an ending someday Disorder increases, and heat fades away Illness and injury bring us alarm, We do our darnedest to dodge out of harm. Not by the hair of our chinny chin chins— Though wolf and pig struggle, yet entropy wins The forces in balance, like sunset and dawn Are what made life happen and why it goes on But even the sun has an ending someday Disorder increases, and heat fades away And thus we bring energy, effort to tend, To make things more ordered, to make, or to mend, Yet back to the hour that life first begins, There’s only one ending—that entropy wins. The forces in balance, like sunset and dawn Are what made life happen and why it goes on But even the sun has an ending someday Disorder increases, and heat fades away

How many stories are stored in here, Tucked away under the stage? How many people both cruel and dear How many places both far and near Written on history’s page? Music and theater, dance and band, Actors and audience understand. Here in this place, through time and space The past and the future waltz hand in hand. Forests and houses and harbors and streets Painted on canvas and lath: Settings of deeds done by heroes and cheats, Victories, setbacks and bitter defeats, Scenes of rejoicing and wrath. Music and theater, dance and band, Actors and audience understand. Here in this place, through time and space The past and the future waltz hand in hand. Here possibilities rise and embark Piled like wheat in a sheaf Places like pages stacked deep in the dark Weigh on reality, leaving a mark Drawn by the strength of belief. Music and theater, dance and band, Actors and audience understand. Here in this place, through time and space The past and the future waltz hand in hand.

Good Neighbors, lyrics and melody by Cat Faber After a prompt by “Write it M***rf***ckers” It’s a sleepover, two in the morning, In my dad’s cousin’s cabin in Vail, And while the fire burns we’re all taking turns At telling the creepiest tale. When our phones get a ping: unknown number With a warning I’d not seen before “By all that is true, whatever you do You’d better not answer the door!” Just then came a tremulous knocking And a calling “Is anyone there? I know that it’s late; I’m willing to wait— “Do you have any honey to spare?” I promptly lit out for the kitchen And brought for our caller to take A big golden jar, and bade “au revoir” To the honey we bought by mistake. Beware when the neighbors come visit To see if you have what they need It’s only the night breeze—or is it? But they’re very good neighbors indeed! Too fast for my friends to prevent me, I swung the oak door open wide “As it happens, we do, here’s the whole jar for you With our compliments ma’am,” I replied. She smiled, with grin slightly wicked Said “you’re good at the mischief—make more!” Then she strode down the drive, looking much more alive Than she’d seemed as she stood at the door. Beware when the neighbors come visit To see if you have what they need It’s only the night breeze—or is it? But they’re very good neighbors indeed! With every leaf-scritch at the window We started awake in the night And the morning’s estate was perhaps rather late As we stumbled out into the light. On the mat something shiny was gleaming Unmolested by vandal or thief— A whistle so fair, the brass shiny with wear With a “thank you” writ out on a leaf. Beware when the neighbors come visit To see if you have what they need It’s only the night breeze—or is it? But they’re very good neighbors indeed!