Across a Crowded Room

/ /

It’s the fault of those Broadway musicals on my mother’s hi-fi
that I half-expected my fellow drunks to burst into song
(Cue “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific)
the night you walked into the room at my AA home group

I half-expected my fellow drunks to burst into song
while an orchestra rose from the church basement floor
the night you walked into the room at my AA home group
Love at first sight may just be remembering the future

A tall, skinny black-haired man walks into a church basement
and time stops, a heart stops, a mouth drops open
Love at first sight may just be remembering the birth room
Someone imprinted on us before we were conscious

Time stops, a heart stops, a mouth drops open
once in every musical, that showstopping moment
when rationality yields to the pull of the unconscious
I was raised on Broadway musicals from my mother’s hi-fi