POEM - My September Story

I sat at my desk

With nothing to do

Except answer phones

Apologize

Stare off into the distance

Walk outside now and then

Look up at the flight path over head

And see nothing but sky

The planes were all grounded

The silence noticeably eerie

It was unreal

Pictures of something

That looked staged

All the way over there

Another world apart

From my desk in cubicle land

Somewhere in the Arizona desert

What I latched onto

In the moment of chaos

Was September Thirteenth

That was when Cake was coming

The tickets sitting at home

I’d had them for a month

And it was all I could focus on

When buildings crumble

It’s often the flowers that bloom

From the discordant rumble

That rebuild the path to hope

My hope lay in impossibility

That a band on tour

Could make it into town

When all the planes stopped flying

Luckily the buses still worked

Luckily Cake understood

That we might need them to make it

Even if it was just for a few people

They could make a difference

Maybe help heal something broken

Understood it was no coincidence

That their song Comfort Eagle

Had a Middle Eastern sound

Which meant all the more

As they played intensely that night

Because we weren’t afraid to be there

And we weren’t afraid to sing

Spirits free to soar

Unobstructed

On a clear September night