The Story of Us: An Anecdote of a Tribe's Year

I wrote this after my senior year of college; to remember September 11 but mostly to capture our tribe, our group of friends bonded together for many reasons but 9/11 being a big one. Our tribe helped me through those days; I hope we helped each other through it. 

The Story of Us: An Anecdote of a Tribe's Year

(with the help of Dave Matthews Band lyrical genius)

  

It's 2 am, I'm drunk again

And I think of how many times this

Motley group of individuals has shared that line

After a night with our bartender,

Drinking a hope to happy years.

We spent endless nights

Trying to find rhyme and reason in this

Scary and beautiful life, always wondering

Maybe if things had been slightly different we could be somebody else.

But we made the choices we made and those choices

Led us to each other:

The poet, the reason, the humor, the singer, the

perspective

All bringing something entirely unique

To an unforgettable tribe.

And there we were,

In our loft, our Camelot,

Sitting on top of the world with our legs hanging free,

Eating, drinking, and being merry for tomorrow

Was just a new day, like everyday,

To do it all over again.

Cause it turns out not where, but who you're with that really matters.

It was a typical situation in a

Not so typical time- crazy,

The world was

Out of control, but so were we,

Right side up or upside down, who knew- who cared.

The "Jesus" that's who.

We were at a time when

Under the weight of life things seemed

So much better on the other side,

But within the solace of each other's

Nonjudgmental judgments

It was always the other side- the better side.

You and me have a better time than most can dream

Magical,

Unfathomable,

Timeless,

Something that no matter where our lives take us

She will go stumbling through her memories

And remember of a time when we let the hours roll by

Doing nothing for fun.

And how did we get to be the chosen few,

Lucky enough to come together

In a year when so many things fell apart.

We were people in every direction

So different

Exactly the same,

Where you end, where I begin.

And I know you because I know me

And I know

There's not a moment to lose in the game,

So we have to celebrate,

And celebrate we did

Because this year especially we learned

That life is short but sweet for certain.

But you know that, don't you?

Of course you do

Because we learned it together.

All night sessions, questioning life, investigating the truth, and

Doing what we needed to do

To make ourselves feel just a little safer,

And just a little more valiant,

And just a little more comfortable living where we were.

And whether that's right or wrong

It makes us want to stay for a while,

Or forever

If it were up to me.

But as all things go, some will leave

And I'll wonder why they had to go

Why would you care to get out of this place?

You and me and all of our friends are

Such a happy human race.

Others will have to move

And I will lose my best friend and thus my soulmate.

My grace is gone,

And I will cry

For I will have lost

For the first and only time this year.

And I hate losing!

But you knew that too, didn't you?

And we all thought for a moment that

This good time would never end,

But we all knew it would have to.

We were an era that began abruptly one

Almost beautiful Tuesday morning when we awoke

To an empty sky,

An empty sky that inevitably, filled our hearts with each other.

And we could be sure...

I will be sure,

That I will not lie in my grave

Wondering if I spent my living days well,

Because I will have spent them with you.