“Prologue: L’eau et la lumière (Water and Light)”

(Jon speaking softly over a distant gospel hum)

You ever notice how light and water dance the same?

One bends, one shines, but both find their way.

The flood came down, yeah —

but the music… the music stayed.

⸻

I woke to the sound of my city prayin’,

Pots clanging, horns hummin’, children playin’.

Every tear on the sidewalk sang my name,

Even the rain got rhythm — ain’t that a thing?

Broken glass caught the sunrise flame,

Turned sorrow gold, never looked the same.

Every loss got a melody, every scar a rhyme,

We still alive, baby — keepin’ perfect time.

⸻

🎶

L’eau s’élève, la foi demeure,

Water rise, but faith still pure.

Oh mon âme, entends le vent,

my soul, the storm’s a choir again.

🎶

⸻

🎶

Light in the flood, sound in the silence,

Turn that pain into holy defiance.

From every ruin, the rhythm grows —

Love’s the seed the water knows.

🎶

🎶

L’eau et la lumière, danse ensemble,

Hope and sorrow move as one.

If the dark can’t hold the dawn,

Then baby, we already won.

🎶

⸻

(Jon with his smile in his voice, talking to the band)

Y’all feel that?

That’s the heartbeat comin’ back!

It’s the tuba hummin’ mercy,

it’s the snare sayin’ “we made it.”

Down here, even grief got a groove.

Even silence got a swing.

(The horns swell, choir echoes softly “mm-hmm.”)

⸻

🎶

Light in the flood, sound in the pain,

Joy gon’ march through the rain again!

L’eau et la lumière, mon feu, mon Dieu,

We’re born again, me and you.

🎶

🎶

Raise that parasol, let it spin,

Turn your sorrow into second wind!

The river tried to wash us away —

But we became the wave.

🎶

⸻

(Jon, tenderly, half-sung, half-whispered)

Yeah… the water came to take the house.

But it left behind a song.

Le soleil se lève encore.

The sun still rises, y’all.

Always does.

(Solo trumpet fades into birds and street sounds — second line starting again.)