A year ago I spent the day
Explorin’ ‘round DC
To start the day, I hopped a bus
To LI’s big party
I chose to wear a striped red suit
Quite like a candy cane
And with the tie of white and blue
Twas anything but plain
Although in style points I know
My outfit can’t be beat
With long pants and a jacket too
It kept in all the heat
But like the banner I mimicked
I made it through the sweat
And like the fabled flag I wore
In troubles I waved yet
And at that party in the park
I made a few new friends
Who feature in the story now
And will until it ends
Cam’ron and Lauren there I met
Together we ate lunch
And other friends I’d meet before
I talked to a whole bunch
Between the infinite ice cream
And all the barbeque
The food was more than enough to
My appetite subdue
My new friends left after a while
To see the founding docs
But we made plans to grab dinner
And meet for firewo’ks
My friends from Forge I’d met in June
I got to see once more
Some I’d forseen and some I’d not
With smiles and fun galore
Kersey, Cairo, Alonso too
Duncan and Chris were there
And all the others that I’ve met
Too many to fit here
But soon enough twas time to go
Return to the hotel
But I had gotten rather hot
So it was just as well
When we returned I took a nap
As best I can recall
Shortly after the new plan was:
Go to the national mall
We started in a decent group
That ate at Chick-fil-A
But narrowed down to four or six
As night concluded day
Lauren, Sully, and Cameron
Would form our little group
And Chris would try to join us but
Would throw us for a loop
‘Cause Chris had brought his own transport
A nice blue pickup truck
But parking in DC is tough
And he did not have luck
While we had made it to the mall
By using Metro trains
He had returned to the hotel
In crowded traffic lanes
So while he made his way to us
We took some time to chill
And take in all the scenery
That’s near Capitol Hill
I was still wearing the flag suit
In patriot spirit
And strangers noticing the look
Wanted pictures with it
Then later on, when Chris had made
His way into DC
We tried our best to rendesvous
But us he could not see
Eventually through waving clothes
And a spotty phone call
We finally managed to meet
On the National Mall
(And Cam’ron had a funny quirk
‘Fore fireworks went pop
Her Eastern European accent was
Her put on Russian accent was
Not something she could stop)
The fireworks would soon begin
And we had quite the view
Those brilliant, massive, bursts of light
In red, and white, and blue
Those sparklin’ shinin’ light blossoms
They rose into the air
And their ginormous thunderclaps
Soon rippled through the air
A truly marvelous display
Of pyrotechnic might
Explosive rockets went up fast
Illuminating night
The crackling bursts of glowing white
And burning trails of red
Coalesced with effervescent blue
Their light the darkness fled
In circles and in starbursts bright
The booming sound was heard
As if a massive symphony
O’er DC was poured
But once the fireworks were done
We quickly packed our stuff
But didn’t hurry out of there
We knew the trains were rough
We’d managed to lose Chris again
As well as his new friend
You may have caught the pattern here
Yes, losing him’s a trend
But as we wandered off the mall
We moved a little slow
We realized that we had to know
“What is the way to go?”
Fortunately there was a cop
Who gave us direction
We made our way toward a station
To add to metro “fun”
But as we moved to cross a street
A small mistake was made
‘Cause some of us had crossed the street
Others of us had stayed
Cam’ron and I were all alone
Lauren and Sully gone
And though we looked around in vain
No luck, so we moved on
First Cameron tried Lauren’s phone
But that was a no go
And then we hit another snag
Her battery was low
In panic I snapped a picture
Of Lauren’s contact sheet
And after Cameron’s phone died
The calls I did repeat
Eventually we found out that
Our wayward friends were fine
So we trekked toward the metro stop
By following a sign
And there we found a busy train
That was completely packed
From wall to wall and door to door
The people were all stacked
We made it to our metro stop
And soon prepared for bed
But then I quickly checked my texts
There a request I read
I had a task to do for Chris
So I texted Sully
And soon my work was done and I
Could go to sleep fully
The friends I made that fateful night
I hope to see again
And if our paths shall meet once more
Can’t wait to see you then!
Note
Text edited, not sure when, but I suggested a change to replace “Her Eastern European accent was” with “Her put on Russian accent was” and have since made the change.