Golden Palace Lyrics - Now.here.this. - Original Cast

The. Subject. Is. Reading 

The subject is reading. 

The teacher selects a passage. 

"Everyone turn to chapter four." 

Then selects a student to read that passage out loud. 

Big blue skies open wide 

sunlight bounces off my eyes 

if I shut them tight the light 

still gets through. 

Big blue skies open wide 

Sunlight bounces off my eyes 

big blue skies open wide 

Sunlight bounces off my eyes 

Big blue skies open wide 

sunlight bounces off my eyes 

if I shit them tight the light 

still gets through 

It's a warm night 

My father is playing under the streetlamp with the other boys 

One by one, they get called in for supper. 

My father lets himself into the house. 

Brushing his teeth makes his gums bleed 

and nobody is checking, so he just goes to bed. 

In the morning, he puts on the same clothes he wore yesterday. 

Way up high, out of reach 

from you and me 

sits a Golden Palace 

I have no map, 

I have no key. 

The Golden Palace is located just over the horizon. 

You can't see it, but it's up there, in a high up, out of reach, top of the wold place. 

There inside are scientists and mathematicians. 

Destined to lead the way 

My father is an excellent mimic. 

"Everyone turn to chapter eight." 

If the teacher calls him third, he can recite the passage. 

If she calls him last, he can recite anything that has been said aloud that day 

Until one day, he feels a hand touch his shoulder. 

"Please begin." 

Everyone is waiting for him to read, and he has to say in front of everyone... 

"I can't." 

My dad is working second shift at the GM plan 

He finishes the balony sandwiches that my mom made for him and solves the last squares of the crossword puzzle 

He still has some time before he has to return to the factory floor 

He fishes an old unemployment check stub out of the pocket of his coveralls, takes a big pen, and begins to write a poem 

like Tom in The Glass Menagerie and the warehouse, writing on the back of a shoebox 

There inside are novelists and bine musicians 

Building great works of art 

I'm home from school on Winter break 

Speaking of, my dad's in school too now 

How about that.. 

"We're both gonna have out masters at the same time" 

I'm organising some boxes and papers and I find the old check stub with the poem written inside in his handwriting 

"Dad, this is good! You can really write" 

"Oh now,.. I can't" 

The golden palace is where the beautiful people and great finger of this and previous generations can be inter bask into their brilliants and to create all the great works of art 

It's all going down in The Golden Palace 

Michelangelo David; 

To kill a Mockingbird; 

The X-men 

Yes, great work 

Worthy work 

And the people that populate that place pop out those important paintings, poems and pieces are deeply intelligents, 

Stunning, clean, privileged people 

There is no room in the golden palace for girl like me 

Girls who come from, where I come from 

I see my hands resting on the keyboard of my laptop 

I look past my hand, and the keyboard, and I see through the pains of my studio window, out into the sharp winter woods 

I am typing this sentence at the Macdowell Artist Colony, in Peterborough, New Hamshire where I am granted a residentsy to work alongside some of the greatest artist and writers on the planet 

To write the words you are lisening too 

Right 

Now 

If it's me 

Thoren Wilder wrote our town here 

Oh, my cursor blinks at me 

I tried to relax my brain, my hands, to write 

I can't 

I checked to see if cellphone coverage is squaking it's way through the New Hamshire woods, and into my studio 

On my Facebook news feed, someones updates their status with this quote from John Adams to his wife Abigail: 

"May 12th, 1718 

I'm a study politics in war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy" 

Everybody is waiting for him to read 

"My son's off to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, national history, architecture" 

We're both gonna have our masters at the same time 

"In order to give their children a right to study music, painting, poetry" 

I have been granted a residentsy at the Macdowell Artists Colony 

I feel a hand touch my schoulder 

Please begin, 

Please begin, 

Please begin.. 

There... 

Is... 

A Golden Palace.. 

It's a Chinese restaurant, located at 321 Nashua street in Milfod, New Hamshire 

It's not over the horizon, 

It is not out of reach 

The Golden Palace is anywhere we make it 

It is anywhere we make anything we want to make 

And there is room for all of us 

The literit boys, the poets that they become 

Awkward girls with big faces, and big feet and strange ideas 

We all belong here 

My fingers begin to move 

To pluck letter, to raise them in order 

The- 

Subject- 

Is-... 

Reading 

Big blue skies open wide 

sunlight bounces off my eyes 

if I shut them tight the light 

still gets through....