July 4th, 2021
by Glenda S Wallace
Brandi Carlile's music gives me chills,
and on July 2nd clinging to a grassy slope in a concert bowl
along the Blackfoot River of Montana
amid a heatwave baking the Northwest
(Come on! 116 in Portland, Oregon! ...
where I first saw Brandi live)
well, let's just say
chills were welcome.
Like a kid, I squealed when The Joke began:
Piano and violin and, then, her voice
calling us to mind the moment
when the movie ends and we're surprised
when the underdog wins.
The American dream.
Countless stars overhead.
More than 600,000 Covid dead
and a mutating virus that too many
believe is no worse than the flu,
I sang my heart out with a crowd
free of masks,
immune from guilt,
and full of hope
that we had moved beyond
petty human limitations.
We were gifted together
with a night of song
long deferred.
