The World's Shortest Musical
Music and Lyrics by Dana Austin
(c) Dana Austin, all rights reserved

This excerpt from an in-progress musical comprises two songs:
"Seven Words" and "Still, Through It All..."


Seven Words
-----------
On this day we take our vows
Before this host within God's house
We pledge to make each other strong
And love for all our lives then longer

In each other's eye we glimpse eternity
And promise in our heart
To honor love
And cherish with compassion
So what God has joined together here
No Earthly force can pull apart

(spoken)
The secret of marital happiness and success
Does not lie in mundane acts of mutual respect
Thoughtfulness
And charity
Though those things are important

The secret is a magic incantation
Seven words long
Begun by either of the partners in marriage
And finished by the other

The power in these spoken words is ineffable

They heal
They recreate
They stop the earth

Yet the words are simple
And common
And impotent if uttered thoughtlessly
Or without sincerity

One of the partners in marriage says
I love you
And the other responds
I love you too

Seven words

And for that brief moment during which the Earth
And all Earthly things on it stop
The partners in marriage may glimpse the beauty
And the joy
Of being married in the eyes of God forever

(sung)
In each other's eye we glimpse eternity
And promise in our heart
To honor love
And cherish with compassion
So what God has joined together here
No Earthly force can pull apart


Still, Through It All...
------------------------
Well I been dirty
And I been drunk
And I been torn from the arms
of Jesus
But still, through it all...

Well I been beaten
And I been robbed
And I been torn from the arms
of my family
But still, through it all...

Well this song's for the ones
who never...
They always...
And this song it's for the times
that we...
We really...
Didn't we?
And this song is for the
very special...
That made me see:
That still, through it all...

Well I been...
And I been...
And I been torn from the breast
Of my mother
But still, through it all...


Seven Words (reprise, last act, last scene)
-------------------------------------------
On this day we say goodbye
And I shall miss you when you die
For all the times you've made me strong
And held me while I cried
Then longer

Don't be scared I'm afraid enough for both of us
But I promised not to show
Last goodbyes are wordless prayers the living trust
Will grant the unsurpassed peace that comes
When nothing's left to know