Track 9 of the album Small Hours, Slow Light · 2021
The Cinema Closes on Sunday
by Wren Hallett
“The cinema closes on Sunday, and there's a banner over the door. I went to the last film on my own and wrote this on the walk home.”
singer-songwriter · wistful folk · dreamy folk · 4:10
Lyrics
The cinema closes on Sunday There's a banner above the door The velvet seats are worn to softness By all the years that came before I bought my ticket with my pocket change And a stranger tore it in two I'm holding half of it like a promise Of a hundred nights I once knew Turn the lights down slow, let the curtain fall Let the old projector hum for us all We came for the story but we stayed for the dark For the shoulder beside us and the quiet spark The cinema closes on Sunday But the light will stay in our hearts Here is where I held your hand first Halfway through a rainy film The popcorn spilled across the carpet And we didn't mind the sillyness The usher knew us by our names And saved us the seats at the back Now he's folding up the posters And he's whistling, nice and slack Turn the lights down slow, let the curtain fall Let the old projector hum for us all We came for the story but we stayed for the dark For the shoulder beside us and the quiet spark The cinema closes on Sunday But the light will stay in our hearts Everything ends in a flicker Everything starts with a beam A little dust turning gold in the air Like the tail of a half-remembered dream So I'll sit till the credits are finished And I'll listen to the hush Some places don't need to go on forever To have mattered so much Turn the lights down slow, let the curtain fall Let the old projector hum for us all We came for the story but we stayed for the dark For the shoulder beside us and the quiet spark The cinema closes on Sunday But the light will stay in our hearts But the light will stay in our hearts