Dear John ft. Eric Price, Jeremy Jordan, Santino Fontana & Erika Henningsen Lyrics

"Letter to John Pace Seavering from Denis McCleary

Dated 12 June 1936"

Dear John

Yes, I'm writing

After all this time

How's the publishing game these days?

I know you probably don't want to hear

From an old has-been like me

But there's some news to share about Rosamund's

How should I say?

Hard-to-treat conditions

She's been under the care

Of Highland Psychiatric

It's the third time she's there

A psychiatric hat trick

A mental hospital

Nevertheless, the doctors have been encouraged

By her progress

And think that a few days back home

In what they call a "family atmosphere"

Might hasten her recovery even more

Oh, you're writing

Just a letter

Want a brandy?

I've already had four

And it's going alright

We are speaking softly

I'll pour one for me

But she's grown so thin

Her eyes look within

And they don't always recognize me

I'll say one wrong word

And the horse is spurred

And, well, stitches have been sewn

This business of my being on the wagon

Doesn't help much either

I've strictly limited my intake to white wine with lunch

Red wine with dinner

And cognac before bed

But it's not helping me hack out any stories

Because all I seem able to do is remember

Do you know what I keep thinking of, John?

The first day of April 1919

The first day of April 1919

You've probably forgotten all about it

You had just moved in

To that office suite

Where the manuscripts filled up the floor

You had worlds to win

There'd be no retreat

And that's when I burst through your door

You could change men's lives

And mine needed change

And I begged you to give me the nod

A man's fate arrives

If it's at close range

And he reaches out for it from God

And at first you said "No"

But then you said "Yes"

I got married and moneyed

The book went to press

That novel made both our careers

After all these years

The Violet Hour

The Violet Hour

Rose?

"Editor's note: Here there's a gap in the page

And when the letter resumes

The handwriting becomes jagged

And indecipherable in places"

Hours later

I am back to say

That Rosamund's

Returned to Highland

There were screams

And a knife

She had tried to

It was bloody

Thank God

In this house

The kitchen's near the study

No, I can't keep reading this

John, please, this is what I need to ask you

As I'm writing

The new novel

We need money

We lost it all in the Crash

And I'm wondering if

You might consider

A modest loan

No, a better thing

A re-publishing

In some kind of new edition

Of the early stuff

It would be enough

To keep her in good care

The Violet Hour might be able to draw attention

As a period piece, you know

And I really believe that if people were reminded

Of how good I used to be

They'd receive me better now

Denny

Denny

I wonder how she's doing over there

In the old days

When she felt this madness coming on

She'd secretly rent a room at the Plaza

And hide away until she was fit to return to people

Maybe if everything had happened differently back then

It would be all right today

Maybe the only thing separating us from contentment

Is the price of a hotel room

But then, her laugh

I can't decipher it

I gave my whole goddamn life for it

I guess it's a code

What she's lost, what she's owed

How she hates me

That laugh runs me through

And there's nothing to do

It denigrates me

It devastates me

Stop

But on April First

Nineteen-nineteen

The world was as new as the dawn

Now it's all reversed

We can't wipe it clean

I've gone too far and she's too far gone

And though you told us "Yes"

At first, you said "No"

And I wish I could go back

To ages ago

John, I wish you had shown us the door

And then

Nevermore

The Violet Hour

Your old friend, Denny