Simple Song

      The are girls already settled
by the stage when I get there –

Hey, didn’t expect
        to see you here, Mandy says.
                          
        I wanted to see the new Metro.
          I wave, to the rest of the girls
             cramped between the stage and the wall,
                    and Dave and I broke up.

Well,     it’s good
 to see you. Sharon hugs me.

                        The pit
                 begins to stir as
        Bedford breaks through to the stage.

Mandy kisses me on the cheek
              Pass it on.
I turn to Sharon,              
                  hesitate,
everyone down the chain giggles,
                      waits
                         for the kiss to get to them.

                First chord
                           incites   :   months
                                  of pent up         energy
                                                         explodes.

                Thanks for having us,
                      for this first show at the new
                         Metro. It seems like we haven’t
                                         seen your faces in ages.

                Voices scream out
                          titles of favorite songs
                               and ones they haven’t
                                 played in years.

                                                     He forgets
                                                                most of the words
                                                     letting the crowd fill in the
                                                                    blanks.

               The pit stops         moving.
                    No one
                        climbs on stage to sing along
               no one     stage dives.          
                       Everyone stares as
                                     Bedford plays through the motions,
                                                of what a set almost
                                                used to sound like.