Theater Of Cruelty

We gather in the candle’s haze
Rehearsing heartbreak, perfect phrase
Each tear a thread of silver light
Each glance a wound we stage just right

We sip ennui like sacred wine
And quote his every line
He wrote of pain that would not yield
We turned it into grace, concealed

You call it truth, we call it style
A perfect mask that wears a smile
Your sorrow’s dressed for matinee
And it photographs so well that way

Welcome to the Theater, love
The seats are velvet gray
The curtain never opens
But we like it that way

Applause for our disasters
Such elegance, such pain
We’ll play the saints of sorrow
’Til the lights fall again

In The Theater of Cruelty
We gather to our seats
We calmly take our places here
Where pain and pageant meet

We paint our grief in opal tones
Compose laments for borrowed bones
The harbor fog, the frozen sea
We dress them all in luxury

So we smile through the fracture
Pose beside the ache
Call it revelation
When it’s all a staged mistake

Welcome to the Theater, love
The seats are velvet gray
The curtain never opens
But we like it that way

Applause for our disasters
Such elegance, such pain
We’ll play the saints of sorrow
’Til the lights fall again

Raise your glass to storms we’ll never meet
To sleepless nights and bittersweet
Our tragedy is ours to frame
We cheer each other’s faux acclaim

Raise your glass to endless rain
To fragile art and studied pain
We quote his lines beneath the lights
And make them shimmer, make them right

The faithful keep performing
Our sadness on repeat
In The Theater of Cruelty
Where all excruciated meet

Welcome to the Theater, love
Your monologue, our prayer
The curtain never opens
But we all pretend it’s there

Applause for your disasters
So brilliant, so in vain
We’ve made a faith of suffering
And wear it like champagne