Variations on a Theme

Every step familiar,
As if I have danced it before.
As if I have heard this music play before.
I know every note, each rise and fall.
Variations on the same theme.

I know this dance, I've seen it danced before.
It's been danced since before I was born.
I had hoped these steps were done,
Hoped to hear the last notes falling,
As the musicians struck new chords,
Not variations on this same theme
Of songs I know too well.

But the music picks up once more.
It is the same.
Once more and once more and once more and once more,
Around this same merry-go-round.

Once more to shout my existence,
Once more to shout my humanity,
Once more to shout "We are here!"
And once more to dance attendance on those
Who say they hear but never listen,
The song begins again.