Frank Orrall Plays the Chapel

July 17, 2019 | San Francisco

Dear Frank
I’m way too chill* to write a fan letter
but I can write a poem
about a fellow poet
if that’s better

About the pleasure
of following
an artist’s career
year after year after 22 years
since I first heard your voice
since I first danced under the Indiana stars

we were so young
now strands of gray adorn us both

I don’t know you
I won’t interrupt you at dinner with your mates
the work you share is all I need from you
but I don’t want to wait
to someday thank you in an elegy
like the one you read so gracefully
for João Gilberto
So let me tell you now

Let me tell you now
you were with me in the summer of ‘99
beneath the streets of Paris
in the empire of the dead
you were with me in my reckless youth
a parade of lovers
humming diamonds and buttermilk
on their way out the door
in my darkest depths
when pain swallowed me whole
Chicago winters of my soul
you crooned words of comfort
and of course you were there at my wedding,
my husband, the one who introduced me to your songs
I fell in love with both of you
you sang our infant son to sleep

none of those playback moments
ever compared with your
magic on the stage
playful, powerful, passionate
climbing the speakers
swinging your lightbulb
the people in your orbit
always the finest
the talent and energy pulled in
by your groovy gravity
your lit up levity
a universe unto itself

and now here you are
singing Godless Church
in a godless church
on a moonlit San Francisco night

Oh, music of forgotten joys
home movies, now we see you as a boy
skateboards bicycles show & tell

You remind me how I love these songs,
remind me how I love my husband,
you move us to get up and dance

(At 11pm on a Wednesday night!
Frank,
we are middle aged people
with office jobs
and a kid,
Frank!
We don’t do this kind of thing for just anyone)

Let me tell you now
before they bury me deep in the 24th street BART

You have earned your place
among the greats
the lengths you go to share your gifts
risk after artistic risk
to give voice to our human hearts
and lift us through that vaulted ceiling
to the stars

all of us
complicated creatures
on our feet for the anthem
of our tribe
we know the words
and we know it’s all right

Frank
Let me tell you now
Thank
You

Goodnight.

(*not true. I have zero chill. zip.)