The Pride Parade Down Peachtree

Lyrics

[Intro]
October. Just past ten in the morning.
The air is still cool on the shady side of Peachtree.
Finding my spot on the curb near 10th Street.
The quiet before the first siren, the first cheer.

[Verse 1]
I remember the pictures in the archives.
June, 1971.
Not this river of people. Just a trickle.
A hundred and twenty-five souls, give or take.
Charlie Brown and the others, walking a street that didn't want them.
Their faces are so serious.
This wasn't a party back then.
It was a claim.

[Chorus]
And now this.
A human river flowing south down the asphalt canyon.
Rainbows bleeding down the walls of glass and steel.
The sound of a city cheering for itself, finally.
And I'm standing here, with a stupid grin and wet cheeks.
Just watching them walk.

[Verse 2]
The Hotel Indigo balconies are draped like royalty.
Every wrought-iron railing a declaration.
Down below, the bank's corporate float,
right behind the Dykes on Bikes,
right in front of the PFLAG parents sweating in their matching t-shirts.
The air smells of sunscreen and hot pavement and kettle corn from a cart on the corner.
A whole civic ecosystem, just for a morning.

[Bridge]
There's a photograph I saw once, from 1981.
One marcher, a piece of cardboard, letters drawn in black marker.
It just says, 'My mother still loves me.'
That's the whole fight, isn't it?
All this noise, all these floats, all this money...
to get back to a thing that simple.
A thing that should never have been in doubt.

[Chorus]
And here comes the river again.
Flowing south down Peachtree.
Rainbows catching the light on the glass towers.
The sound of a city finally cheering for all of itself.
And I'm just standing here, this stupid grin, these wet cheeks.
So proud of them.
Just for walking.

[Outro]
The last float passes.
The sound moves on, towards the park gates on Monroe.
All that's left is the confetti on the asphalt.
And the echo between the buildings.
The street is ours.
For a little while.
The street is ours.