Corey J. Feldman, founder of the NYC-based band Mercury Landing, is in the process of creating a rock opera. Kindly, he has agreed to share a new piece of it each week with us here in the Listening Room.

“The Green Emerald,” as the opera has been named, is almost three years in the making. An illustrated storybook will also accompany the performance of the opera, which will take place at 8 p.m Dec. 4th and 5th at the Bowery Poetry Club, located at 308 Bowery in Manhattan.

Below we have the second installment, entitled “The Green Emerald.” Click here for all previous entries. Enjoy!

(Note: Italics are spoken word intros; one asterisk designates the chorus.)

II – “The Green Emerald”

It was 5000 years,

Before the evil King.

When an ancient race of humans,

Had another song to sing.

Their eyes were robbed of color.

Their souls were full of pride.

They searched out the Green Emerald.

Heads high with every stride,

On the path to a small moon,

Of a planet known as Earth.

It’s where the stone had rested,

Soon after its birth but,

To ask the right question,

Is a task of the wise,

For it’s only true wisdom that brings,

Hues to sullen eyes.

*****

They were a long way from home,

Without a color to be seen.

Stranded all alone they’d find,

A stone they saw as green.

*These travelers of stars so gray,

Colorblind they’d live for love.

But found no help in their drained shade,

They needed color from above, above, above.

They found the jewel not far from Earth,

Shining and glowing under dust.

So thick with gray before its birth,

It didn’t know whom it could trust.

Alive and dead the stone would choose,

The path of the righteous, yet ignorant fools.

Unless some power found the stone,

And knew its secret to the throne.

*These travelers of stars so gray,

Colorblind they’d live for love.

But found no help in their drained shade,

They needed color from above, above, above.

They found the jewel not far from Earth,

Shining and glowing under dust.

So thick with gray before its birth,

It didn’t know whom it could trust.

The dawn and dusk of time were etched.

Into this stone, through space it stretched.

Ask the right question just one time and,

Splash all those colors into your minds.

So goes the legend of the jewel,

That many have seeked, all but one a fool.

A princess born to an evil man,

A ruthless king with a sinister plan.

*These travelers of stars so gray,

Colorblind they’d live for love.

But found no help in their drained shade,

They needed color from above, above, above.

They found the jewel not far from Earth,

Shining and glowing under dust.

So thick with gray before its birth,

It didn’t know whom it could trust.