Remarks On Another Change of Guard

Before I begin, I would like everyone to know background on this one. It makes me cry, this poem, because to write it was to admit to myself that the So Cal Ren Faire was really leaving the only place I've ever known it to have. It's like leaving home for me. It's a second family and a first love carried on a dusty summer breeze. People I loved have died there, friends had babies and gotten married, I had my first drink and first sex and first ice cream all within the Faire. I would like to thank anyone who's been a patron in the last 22 years, because your play, adventure, and love has been part of me all my life. I wish you readers all good luck and sweet songs.
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We wake in the morning
Sounds of privy trucks
Ah, sublime alarm clock rumble-pumps at FIVE AM!
We brush our teeth and set the booths

I've wandered in the pale morning light
wearing pajama bottoms and a bodice
Breakfast of choice is biscuits and gravy
At the communal meeting of Boar's Head

Change into funny clothes
(bodices are better than bras!)
Skip off with friends to work
But our jobs are the best, because we live them

And we live them out loud
with Ale for Sale! and Fyne Ribbon Roses!
Life in full-on Mardi Gras color!
ours is better, for we are family for 8 WHOLE WEEKS

After the mad dash
the whirl and swirl of Danse Macabre
the pomp of Lord Mayor, circumstance of Queen's Progress
We let them go to drift into reality

And ours is better
Because we love it
our jobs, our friends
ourselves.