Feb. 26, 2019: "After All," by Matt Halvorson

Up from the ground
Floating around
Just as real as can be
As real as you here with me
As real as our sons
As real as our daughter
As real as the one
Who’s not yet begun
It’s all real.
It’s fucked up, and it’s happening still.

So ABC and 1-2-3
Everything’s so simple now
Oh, can’t you see?
I’ll keep you all close to me
’Cause to think it through
I’m seeing you
I’m seeing us and feeling myself torn in two
My children, stolen, led away in chains
To never see them again

It’s too much to bear
Too much to be borne
Too much to think of
Too much to ignore
After all…

What will I do?
No hypotheticals
And no excuse
Can’t pretend I never knew
Ain’t no words with depth or breadth
Or meaning now enough to match
So all I’ve got left
Is to love the ones I love with all I’m made of

And to promise to live like I know what I do
To seem crazy if that’s what it takes to be human
After all…