Sound Check

Sound Check At five this morning I opened the drapes There was a little Blue bird perched On the white railing He did not move Holding a peanut While I was singing Santana Picturing Santana As I had seen him At Grant Park Wearing a blue Bandana And playing A royal blue Guitar Making the guitar With a bit Of peaceful effort Sing softly A five minute solo And a black hawk Flew above him All the other musicians Stopped playing And Santana was Ad-libing For maybe ten minutes And although there were A half-million people The crowd grew so quiet You could hear The sounds of Michigan Avenue traffic The sun shone clear The crowd was in awe Santana was praying While he played He was singing In Spanish The Act of Contrition Over and over The crowd joining in Behind him Was a banner Of Our Lady Of Guadalupe Maybe he’d play Another ten minutes The same wondrous way The entire band turned The gal next to me Started crying Everyone faced Our Lady And were singing, Praying in english Spanish and polish The Gal next to me Was still crying And then I remembered This was only rehearsal The crowd was expanding Everyone was quiet The breeze was gentle The crowd sang softly More birds Flew on stage It was 75 degrees The crowd was mournful But ecstatic The woman’s little boy Jumped on my lap As the band left the stage Santana turned and smiled See you guys In one hour Then he put arms and Hands in the air Looking into sky He said Gracias. Te Adoro. The crowd was weeping I was stunned The crowd was quiet. I, the little boy And the mom Next to me began Singing Como La Flor Then the whole row The whole section Sang softly along The wind picked up The sun was brighter The sky had gotten A copper blue shade Like a painting The crowd kept singing Louder and louder Now quite loud And finally the voices Drifted The birds flew peacefully Over the park And everyone was noticing. The mom next to me said Firmly There is hope.