Alice Tierney: three arias

Lyra
I wish that you could see you
the way that I see you.
I wish that you could feel you
the way that I feel you.
Not broken but brave,
and brilliant and bold,
and genuine and strong, so strong.
A beautiful monster of madness and rage
that only I can tame,
that only I can hold.
I thought I was in love, once long ago.
I thought she made me whole.
I didn't know it was really you.
My love, I was waiting for you.
My love, who arrived at my door,
soaked and freezing,
Lost in a storm with only me to keep you warm,
give you a home, give you…
I was never one for the spotlight.
I never wanted the top prize.
Once I earn this degree for my mother,
I’ll begin my own life—at last!—by your side,
my love, my own.
I didn't get it wrong, did I? No!
You’re the one,
and I will make it work.
This time,
no more mistakes,
just more.

Alica 1 
It did break.
It broke on the night I was murdered.
It broke in the struggle.
They threw it into the privy and left me dangling on the fence.
Lifeless. Alone.
I am Alice. I am Alice Tierney.
I danced my way from New York to New Jersey,
New Jersey to the Philadelphia-shore.
Parties, glamour, and fashion.
Then, broke.
I ran out of money
but not out of men, or women, or…
I built a place for those who hide in the shadows.
From the Merchant’s doors at Penn Harbor they came.
Top coats, top hats, striking silhouettes.
I open my front door wide.
They are ready for a loosened collar,
the gaze of someone who can truly see them,
the finest wine and company,
this is the life I was destined for.
No stuffy ballrooms,
no husband littering the city with bastards.
This is me.
No one will ever stop me.
I am Alice. I am Alice Tierney.

Alice 3
I might be Alice.
I might be Alice Tierney.
I cannot tell you where I come from,
but I can tell you where I’ve been.
I’ve been in bars where men profess love,
only to turn their backs when the next ship comes in.
I have lost lovers to conscription and civil war.
I have lost lovers to the meddling church,
and the cruel illness of Philadelphia summers.
But I have gained as I have lost,
and I have loved more than most.
Live on, all those who love and wish to be loved.
Destroy all but the proof of your passion
for the future to hold and judge.
In the end, the gavel sounds, a jury stands,
and I swing from a fence behind a boarding house.
A murder? A mistake? A suicide in the rough?
I might be Alice Tierney.