I'll Teach the Stars - Luna 
(Intro: lone fiddle, soft boot-stomp, distant laughter hidden in the wind)

The moon misplaced a measure.
The stars forgot the rhyme.
The road swapped all the signposts
and blamed it all on time.

The bard looked up and laughed.

“Fine.”

(Verse 1: dark folk swing, hand drum and low strings)
Once I knew a hundred songs,
Knew where every heartbeat belonged,
Knew the turn before the fall,
Knew which silence held it all.

Then morning came with crooked hands,
Moved the rivers, changed the plans,
Left my verses dressed in snow
And asked me where the music goes.

So I chased it through the timber,
Through the chapel, through the rain,
Found the universe behind me
Moving all the stones again.

(Pre-Chorus: rhythm tightens)
Ha.

Very funny.

Hide the road.
Steal the key.

You forgot one little problem:

The song remembers me.

(Chorus: full band, triumphant, stomping)
So I’ll keep the music in my feet,
In the spaces where the words still meet,
In the breath before the chorus lands,
In the drumbeat sleeping in my hands.

Let the heavens shuffle every card,
I will learn the rhythm twice as hard.
If the universe keeps stealing tunes from me,

I’ll teach the stars to sing them back.

(Verse 2: faster, playful edge, fiddle answering vocal)
I found tempo in a tavern chair,
Meter tangled in a woman’s hair,
Cadence hiding in a closing door,
Harmony beneath a creaking floor.

Found a chorus in a blacksmith’s swing,
Found a bridge in how the church bells ring,
Found a rest inside a held goodbye,
Found the downbeat when the ravens fly.

Every time the cosmos grinned
And pulled another little thread,

I stopped asking where it went.

I listened somewhere else instead.

(Pre-Chorus: brass joins)
Ha.

Very clever.

Break the page.
Blur the ink.

You can take away the lantern.

You cannot take the way I think.

(Chorus: bigger)
So I’ll keep the music in my feet,
In the spaces where the words still meet,
In the breath before the chorus lands,
In the drumbeat sleeping in my hands.

Let the heavens shuffle every card,
I will learn the rhythm twice as hard.
If the universe keeps stealing tunes from me,

I’ll teach the stars to sing them back.

(Bridge: music drops to voice and low drum)
A bard does not keep music
by locking every song away.

A bard keeps music
by learning where it lives.

Not in parchment.

Not in memory alone.

Not in one perfect melody
that never changes shape.

Music lives in pattern.

Return.

Tension.

Release.

A foot finding the floor.

A voice finding the next breath.

A hand striking wood
and knowing

when not to strike again.

(Beat returns, heavier)

So hide the songs.

Go on.

I know what made them.

(Breakdown: stomping chant)
STEAL THE VERSE.

I’LL KEEP THE BEAT.

BREAK THE RHYME.

I’LL FIND THE FEET.

TAKE THE MAP.

I’LL READ THE SKY.

LOSE THE SONG.

I’LL ASK IT WHY.

(Swing Break: fiddle, brass, wicked laughter)
Round and round the planets spin,
Changing where the roads begin,
Bard just tips her hat and grins:

“Do it again.”

Move the mountain.
Drain the sea.
Change the language under me.

I have learned the oldest trick:

If rhythm leaves,

make rhythm.

(Final Chorus: full choir, fiddle and drums roaring)
I’ll keep the music in my feet,
In the places broken patterns meet,
In the breath before the chorus lands,
In the pulse still waiting in my hands.

Let the heavens shuffle every card,
I will learn the rhythm twice as hard.
And if the universe keeps stealing tunes from me,

I’ll teach the stars to sing them back.

Yes, if the universe keeps laughing quietly,

I’ll laugh in key
and answer back.

(Outro: instruments fall away until only boot-stomp remains)

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

(soft laugh)

There you are.