Lyrics by John Hall
Music by Roger Bourland
The Nightmare
A bottomless canyon between sick and well
The chasm is fear and no man can tell
What courage it takes, what personal hell to cross over.
Ah! Ah! Wake Up!
Unseen in silence, just lying in wait.
The viral aggressor will manifest hate.
Can society change or is it too late to cross over?
Ah! Ah! Wake Up!
A new plague that hides in the blood!
The fluid of life now turns to a flood of pollution.
No solution!
Ah! Ah! Wake Up!
Muffled footsteps coming nearer
And the image of Death’s growing clearer.
Like a nightmare with no waking
There’s no saving the lives that it’s taking.
Ah! Ah!
A Beast thing, A vampire Beast designed for Death!
Like a voueur, its deadly perfection lets other infection
Torture and kill! Torture and kill!
Nothing can change its delivered destruction.
Ah! Ah!
Throw aways! Throw aways! The Beast kills throw aways!
Cast offs, addicted strays, Nobody cares for dying gays!
The Beast grows stronger, the list of dead grows longer!
A son will die, a mother cries, “It’s wrong!”
Her words cannot be heard.
“Right to Life” – What a cynical phrase.
Selective invective expecting some praise.
Immoral morality guessing the ways to cross over.
From a dying shell, a soul shines incandescent.
A light from the dark beyond where we will follow.
But a hollow sound reverberates barely below you…
Do we know you?
Constant debating conceals the hating.
No one relating, infected kept waiting, crossing over.
Ah! Ah!
No sign of violence, but Silence…Silence.
Silence equals Death, Silence equals Death,
Silence equals Death...
Copyright ©1992 John Hall & Roger Bourland
Commissioned and Performed by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. Funded in part by the Cultural Affairs Department, City of Los Angeles.
