What Makes a Family

Lyrics

[Intro]
Aldabra Atoll.
Where giant tortoises move like centuries.
A packet of letters, sealed against the damp.
From a woman who may not exist.
The journal calls her Cat Hater Carla.
A wedding planner for pets.

[Verse 1]
She plans the union of Pomeranians.
Finds a tiny tuxedo for a Persian cat she hates.
She writes the vows. "Do you, Brutus, take this Lulu..."
For a fee.
She officiates love measured in squeaky toys.
A floral arch for animals who don't know their own mothers.
A family for an afternoon.

[Chorus]
But what makes a family?
Is it blood? A name on a form you can't find?
Is it choice? The vows you write for someone else?
Or just the ceremony?
These letters on a protected shore.
What makes a family, Carla? What are you for?

[Verse 2]
Here's the first letter. August, 1998.
The ink is hopeful.
"To whom it may concern... I am seeking..."
Here's one from 2010.
The handwriting, a fist.
Replies full of careful regrets.
A name blacked out with a marker on a faded form.
Searching for a beginning,
while arranging the seating chart for dogs.

[Chorus]
And what makes a family?
Is it blood? A name on a form you can't find?
Is it choice? The vows you write for someone else?
Or just the ceremony?
These letters on a protected shore.
What makes a family, Carla? What are you for?

[Bridge]
Did you watch the Shih Tzu and the Siamese go down the aisle?
Did you see a belonging you couldn't trace?
You build these little kingdoms of affection.
Declare them family by the power of a pet-friendly hotel.
Then you come here, to the loneliest nursery on Earth,
to leave the proof of your own missing branch.

[Outro]
The tortoises don't ask. They just are.
Ancient bloodlines in the dust.
The last letter is blank.
Just paper, waiting for a name.
Blood... choice... or ceremony?