Real Alarms Don't Beep

San Francisco, California,
A hotel tangled in the trees.
Cookie crumbs on our pillows at eleven,
Beep, beep, beeping at three.
Groans, walks, and evacuations,
Hundreds yawning in the street,
Out in the parking lot in pajamas,
Waiting for the false alarm's defeat.

Miami, Florida,
Suite next to a moon river.
Sandwich wrappers on the coffee table.
Beep, beep, beeping on our floor,
The only room in the whole hotel.
Waiting for the false alarm's silencer,
Repairman's away, driving the shuttle bus
We sit, watching the aquarium, in lobby chairs.

No false machine's beeping
Can compare to real alarm,
Smoke monsters invading oxygen,
Glowing fire down the mountain,
Yards away from my backyard.
The most real alarms don't beep.

Math building,
Writing puzzles on a test.
Beep, beep, beeping in the middle,
A pause to build up false stress,
Unplanned field trip on the last day.
A pesky student trying to create a jest.
Guess he wasn't prepared,
Needing extra time to rest.

Art building,
Projecting paint on mask.
Beep, beep, beeping
Twice in same class.
My brush drying in water,
Sitting uphill on the grass,
Here comes the fire truck again.
How long will this false alarm last?

Chorus

*** Synopsis: A song about how fires are the scariest when there is no beeping alarms.

Monograph

In the first verse, I took out one of the "beeps" in the fourth line and I changed "And parking lot in our pajamas" to "Out in the parking lot in pajamas." Wherever the word "alarm" appears in a verse, I added the word "false" in front of it, to make the point of the song more evident. In the second verse, I changed "The repairman away on the shuttle bus" to "Repairman's away, driving the shuttle bus," to make it less confusing. I also changed "Watching aquariums in lobby chairs" to "We sit, watching the aquarium, in lobby chairs."

In the chorus, I omitted "alarms' in "No false machine alarm's beeping" to make it "No false machine's beeping." I changed "Can compare to my eyes" to "Can compare to real alarm," to add further emphasis on the difference between false and real alarms. I changed "Smoke monsters invading my patio" to "Smoke monsters invading my oxygen," because I thought smoke ruining air would be a more fitting metaphor.

In my Layton neighborhood in 2007, one of my neighbors from up the street decided to burn bush in her backyard and started a huge fire that burned most of the mountain between two neighborhoods. Luckily for her, it started raining and put out most of the fire before it burned down any houses. Seeing fire on the mountain and tons of black smoke in my backyard was way more scary experience than hearing a smoke alarm or detector go off. I changed "Glowing runners down the mountain," to "Glowing fire down the mountain," because I thought the word fire need to be added to show more evidence of the point I am trying to make. I changed the last line of the chorus and the title from "The most alarming, alarms are silent" to "The most real alarms don't beep."

I didn't add anything or subtract anything from the third verse. In the fourth verse, I changed the line from "My brush dying in water," to "My brush drying in water," to emphasize the time I had been away from the building, waiting for the alarm to go off. I also added the false to make it say, "How long will this false alarm last?"