My phantom brother came to me His backlit face was hard to see I couldn't move, I couldn't scream You can't un-hear Beethoven's 5th This human heart's an aggregate Competing feelings so disparate And strange Life's a solitary song No one to clap or sing along It sounds so sweet and then it's gone So suddenly My aging mother steeled herself Against the gravity she felt Braced for another fainting spell Fell in her mind through a trap door We picked her up off of the floor When she came to her throat was sore And she spoke Life's a game of solitaire Amusement rides at county fairs The Tilt-A-Whirl of our despair Ends suddenly Where'd it go? Life's a lonely love affair Kaleidoscope beyond compare It vanishes into thin air So suddenly