What a Long, Strange Trip
Answering a letter-writer to her column,
a woman having a hard time in pandemic lockdown,
“Amy,” ends with, “What a long, strange trip…”
to refer to all of us dealing with the coronavirus:
the second time Amy’s mentioned the Grateful Dead
in her advice column, so we wonder: a Deadhead?
Worse ways to spend one’s time than listening
to the band’s music, quoting lyrics, especially the one
that’s become an anthem, a prayer, of sorts,
“We will get by, we will survive,”
and hope it’s true, with a little help from our friends,
to paraphrase Ringo in another old song.
In the meantime, we wait for Amy to refer
to “Uncle John’s Band” someday, playing
“down by the riverside,” when we can all gather again,
and not worry about anything, too much.