no more secretaries

If I could’ve reached my hand up
Guided the plane in to land, but softly,
It would’ve been good.
You left for the open west
We all know the rest.

No more secretaries;
They just turned to dust
While making dinner plans.
Or Instant Messaging.
It might have been avoided.

If I could’ve guided your plane down.

Water coolers boiling over.
A thousand games of Solitaire destroyed
Meg Ryan movie trailers
Silenced in mid-air.

No more novels penned by temps.
Their secret screenplays burned to death:
Lost in molten hard drives.
They might have seen the light.

If I could’ve guided your plane down.

Office boys and girls with sights set
Far beyond these pink cubicle walls
Are raining from the heavens:
Flying. Finally free.

With bodies frail and feather light
They cut the sky like stars in daylight.
What kind of man could do this to you?
He did it to me, too.

If I could’ve guided your plane down.

words and music by Michael Johnson
rehearsal recording: music by Joe Ballman, Anthony Georgis, Michael Johnson
© 2001, Zubsongs, Ltd.

Dedicated in loving memory to everyone who perished in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001