Like a band with no crowd | Waiting Still 23
Like a band with no crowd
Day Twenty-Three | Waiting Still
I saw a favorite band of mine
play last night
They were on tv
A holiday special
live-streamed to hundreds
of thousands
My son and I were
dancing like crazy
in the basement
But no one was dancing
in the Brooklyn warehouse
where they played
They’d finish a song
one that would fill a stadium
with whistles and yells
but in that empty room
all they were met with was
a dark silence
I wonder what the band was thinking
All that energy answered
with an awkward quiet
That’s kind of life, isn’t it?
A band playing to no crowd
So much of the music we make
Taps on the cowbell
Hair dangling over fingers on synths
Bass stings vibrating on our bellies
Notes that fill measures
Measures that make songs
Little things
Moments
Bouncing around empty ballrooms
Is anyone out there dancing with us?
•
Makes me think of the Christmas story
The way Matthew and Luke tell it
can give off this impression
of a show with a great big crowd
Mary’s giving birth vocals
Mixed with Joseph’s anxious drums
Sheeps on keys
Cows on cowbell (of course)
Donkey on guitar
Camel on bass
Playing a rager in front of
Wise Men in funny hats (their festival gear)
and shepherd fanboys
All bathed in angel strobe
sweating and dancing
Even if I give the storytellers
the benefit of the doubt
That some folx actually did show up
to witness
some point after Mary gives birth
I’m sure it wasn’t the spectacle we’ve made of it
2000 years later
It was probably just Mary
and a couple women
practicing their sacred role of
midwives
in some backroom — maybe even a stable
After all the squeezing and tearing and pushing
it was most likely
a silent night
except the coos and cries of the newborn
I wonder what Mary and Joseph thought
after it happened
Probably a mix of love and fear
Love for their child and
fear for how they’ll make ends meet
how to keep it together
and find enough
during a time of such immense change
With so many unknowns
•
The band responded to the silence
with a kick drum
They played the next song
They didn’t know my three-year-old and I
were rocking out — so hard
but they kept playing
The next day, Mary must’ve
breast-fed the child
and Joseph must’ve cared
for his tired wife
They didn’t know the way they filled
the measures
with care and mistakes
would lead to a Song
that would shape the Cosmos
They just kept playing
Keep playing, friends
Keep filling Life’s measures
with moments
Do your best to make them
beautiful, loving, fun even
Practice patience and be persistent
It’ll take a while
but just wait
Together
One Day we’ll find
we’re composing the greatest hit
