EAV Strut: Halloween's Wild Heart

Lyrics

[Intro]
The air goes sharp.
October on the tongue.
You feel it first, right here.
The pavement hums.

[Verse 1]
Down Glenwood, a river of masks is gathering.
At Flat Shoals, the traffic lights just blink, surrender.
A man in a cardboard streetcar costume, dragging history on tiny wheels.
A ghost with a boombox.
You pull your collar up, and your breath is white smoke in the twilight.
Everyone is waiting for the signal.
The first real drumbeat.

[Chorus]
And then it breaks.
The wild heart starts to beat.
This is the Strut.
This is the sound of our own feet.
Paint and paper, glitter and bone.
For one night, we take back the street.
We make it our own.

[Verse 2]
Music spills from a stage in the 529 parking lot.
The bassline shakes the windows at The Earl.
Smells of popcorn and something frying, something sweet.
We push through the bodies.
A thousand different faces, all of them strange, all of them known.
You point at a monster ten feet tall, made of wire and cloth, and you laugh that sound I know.

[Chorus]
And the wild heart just keeps on beating.
This is the Strut.
This is the sound of our own feet.
Paint and paper, glitter and bone.
For one night, we take back the street.
We make it our own.

[Bridge]
And right here, in the middle of all this beautiful noise, I just watch your face.
Lit by the neon from Mary's, then by a passing string of lights.
Your eyes are wide.
You're not looking at the parade anymore.
You're looking at all of us.
This is what they meant.
The forgotten suburb, waking up.
Shouting its name.

[Outro]
The parade moves on, a river flowing toward Ormewood.
But the heart...
the heart stays here.
Beating in the bars.
In the alley smoke.
In the echo.