Ben, Chris, Eric, Kaimi, Kath, and the Steves were The Innocent Bystanders. How far into the forest they went, I can’t say. But we all go far enough to get lost.

And then Jessica joined the band.

It’s not that you don’t know the way out. It’s just that you wouldn’t have a place to go if you took that path. The little things aren’t there anymore. It’s a feeling you don’t want to know. So why force yourself not to sit and wait on a call that’s never going to come . . . whether you let yourself believe that someone can give you the words to say. Even if you aren’t lost, you’ve lost. We lost a man who was perfect in his imperfectness. An axe-man both proud and humble. He carried us and he would have again. He was never replaced.

And then Donny joined the band.

And, oh, it’s tonight. We reached up and touched the stars. A place neither scary, nor familiar. A place where you smoke cigarettes and howl at the moon. Until your howler’s gone away. If you see him, tell ‘em that here it’s gotten slow. If he thinks that I’ve forgotten him, don’t tell him it isn’t so.

And then Debbie joined the band.

Finally, or so it seems, the drums kick in and you’ve found it. You’ve done your time and it’s time to be free. You’ve got the tools to build with. You always did, but now you are so present and so gone. You’re nippin’ at the wheels. No one said it would be easy. But somehow you thought it might be. Now you know, as you taste the twilight. You catch them when they’re falling. You lie by their sides knowing they’ll soon be gone. You could have sworn someone said you could handle it. How could they have known? Sha la la. Rage is channeled into a wah wah. There will be no undoing of the goodness done. Belie the lies that done you wrong. Let darkness shine through the day. Borrowed time is the only kind that untwists crazy sorrow. And dances beneath the starlit sky with one hand reaching to touch the one who walks the spirited path with you on their mind.