ATTENTION please, ladies and gentlemen:
Tonight we observe a phenomenon of celestial incomprehensibility.
Do not panic.
Do not howl unnecessarily.

[Verse 1 (Training Film Voiceover + Band) NARRATOR (over snare and muted brass) ]
You may be told it’s “impossible” to see the Sun and Moon at once,
Yet the sky is fond of loopholes when the air gets in the way.
The atmosphere bends light, like paperwork bending rules,
And for a brief, instructive window, both horizons have their say. 0

[SUNG (crooner + chorus, jaunty): ]
So if you spot the Moon in shadow, and dawn (or dusk) also shown,
Congratulations, citizen: your eyeballs have been loaned
A little lift by refraction, a half-degree of fate,
A selenelion slipping through the geometry gate.

[Chorus (Big, silly, memorable)]
[ALL: ]
Se-le-na-lion se-len-el-ion! 🎶
Two horizons, one occasion!
If a lion’s watching too,
It’s a selenelionlion…
(try saying that in formation!)
🎶

[TAG (spoken, deadpan): ]
“Information is optional.
Enunciation is not.”

[Verse 2 - SUNG (clear, bulletin-style, like a public notice set to music) ]
To-night, Tuesday the Third of March, the Moon goes ruddy-red!
Totality from 10:04 pm till 11:02 pm, they said,
And peaking at 10:33 with that copper-coloured glow,
So finish your tea, then step outside, and let the night-light flow. 2

[NARRATOR (quick aside, clipped)]
“Times are for Australian Eastern Daylight Time and are approximate.
Amazement is mandatory.
Howling is optional”

[Verse 3 (The Subtle Snark / Lycanthropy Thread)]
[SUNG (minor key, playful menace kept on a leash):]
There’s talk in back-row whispers, in the canteen’s smoky sheen,
Of “the last rays of the setting moon” and what that might have meant.
Not a curse, not quite a claw-mark, just a lycanthropic line,
As though the night had teeth… then smiled, and called it fine.

[NARRATOR spoken, dry, conspiratorial]
“Should you feel an urge to become folklore, consult your nearest mirror.”

[Verse 4 (Kilimanjaro Daydream + Serengeti Lion Cutaway) SUNG (cinematic widen): ]
Some will climb Kilimanjaro, above the plains’ long night,
High where stars look nearer, and the air tastes lightly of life,
While down in grass-cathedrals, a lion lifts his head,
And watches Earth’s own shadow paint the Moon a war-time red.

[CHORUS (whispered, like a secret password): ]
Selenalionselenelion… Selena lion selenelion…
Selenalionselenelion… (Selena lion) selenelion…

[## Bridge (Periodic Table & Band Personnel Roster)]
[NARRATOR (American, upbeat, WWII instructional tone):]
“Now class, meet Selenium, element thirty-four.
Sulfur’s cousin. Same neighborhood. Different shoes. Essential to life, even a bit toxic, but sure to make very smelly emissions!”

[ALL (chant): ]
Se! Se! Se! (hi-hat ticks like a Geiger counter that found jazz)

[Instrumental - Strip back to plunger-muted brass and soft brushes + gentle oboe, with soft portamento harmonies from the choir ]

[Verse 5 - (Joan’s Verse, Warm and True)]
[SUNG (tender, not syrupy): ]
And here’s to Joan, turning eighty-eight today,
With George, and recorder bandmates keeping lovely time in eight.
May your notes be bright as moonrise, your breath as calm as dawn,
And may your birthday make the night feel kindly, safely worn.

[NARRATOR (soft)]
“Happy birthday, Joan!" (Chocolate!? why not!)

[drop]

[Final Chorus (Bigger, Brassier, Victory-Poster Ending)]
🎶 Se-le-na-lion-se-le-ne-lion! (se-len-el-ion)
Brief horizon conjunction!
Moon in umbra, Sun in sight,
Thanks to air’s refraction…
For one to three minutes of instruction! 🎶 3

[OUTRO (Recorders reprise + oboe salute):]
[Recorders play the opening motif again, brighter. Oboe holds one noble note like a lighthouse beam. Projector clatters, then stops.]

[NARRATOR (final): ]
“This concludes the announcement.
Go outside. Look up.
And if you see a lion, that is just Selena Lion at Selenelion!”