Flibberty Jib

There was this stranger who came into our town
He was tall and had a dark look about him
And a special brilliance in his eyes
When he looked at us, there was the feeling that he could look right down to the bottom
We may have been mistaken in this
But at the time, no questions were asked
The questions always come later
All we cared about was the mystery we sensed in this stranger
And we waited to see what would happen

One еvening, that was different from any othеr
He got us all together in the big auditorium
He stood there on the huge stage, the only light was on him
And we waited in the dark
Then, out of his tallness came the chanting
First, as a whisper we could hardly hear
“The flibbety jib bom, the bippety bop, the flibbety jib bom, the bippety bop”
It didn’t make any sense

We were caught up in something we didn’t understand
He had trapped us, without our knowing it, possibly, it was his manner
And we came alive to him
Then, as he slowly moved us with his chanting through the land of hush
Into insistent, throbbing crescendos of ecstasy
As if it were the only thing we could do

We started to chant with him
”The flibbety jib bom, the bippety bop, the flibbety jib bom, the flippety bop”
And he was up on the high stage, laughing with all his might
Shouting, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

But, there were those among us who were jealous of his powers
Who felt that they should be in the center of the stage, with the light shining on them
They were against our hero and the chanting, and our going to be with him every free moment

And so, little by little, a little later
These critics set to work to make nonsense out of the sense of what we were doing
And they succeeded
They destroyed our hero’s faith in himself, he didn’t have it anymore
After a few disappointing times in the big auditorium, the light gone out of him
We all stopped going, and the man who once had seemed so tall
Who now seemed so much smaller, left our town
Saying “No, no, no”

We lived through the boredom of the time that followed
Telling each other pale stories of what once was and what might have been, if
We lived on histories and hopes
We did this until the miracle we thought would never happen, happened again!

Another stranger came into our town
And he was tall and dark and had eyes that could look right down into the bottom of you
And he got us all together in the big auditorium and with the light on him
We were in the dark, he chanted:
“Flippety jib bom, the bippety bop, the flippety jib bom, the bippety bop”
And, we joined in and the magic was in us!
And he was laughing and all his might was with him
Shouting “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

But … There were those among us who were jealous
And so forth, you know what they did
Little by little, a little later, they put us back on the narrow path

This is the way things have been in our town for as long as anyone cares to remember…
By the way, how are things in your town?