“Somewhere a Band is Playing” (Poem) Ray Bradbury

Somewhere a band is playing,
Playing the strangest tunes,
Of sunflower seeds and sailors
Somewhere a drummer simmers
And trembles with times forlorn,
Remembering days of summer
In futures yet unborn.

Futures so far they are ancient
And with Egyptian dust,
That smell of the tomb and the lilac,
And seed that is spent from lust,
And peach that is hung on a tree branch
Far out in the sky from one’s reach,
There mummies as lovely as lobsters
Remember old futures and teach.

And children sit by on the stone floor
And draw out their lives in the sands
Remembering deaths that won’t happen
In futures unseen in far lands.
Somewhere a band is playing
Where the moon never sets in the sky
And nobody sleeps in the summer
And nobody puts down to die;
And Time then just goes on forever
And hearts then continue to beat
To the sound of the old moon-drum drumming
And the glide of Eternity’s feet;