The Friday Poem this week comes from the one act musical, [title of show], which ran on Broadway for 102 performances in 2008. ‘A Way Back To Then’ was written by Jeff Bowen.

I discovered the words and music while listening to the ‘On Broadway’ channel as we drove across country this week.

This one is for all the dreamers, as a reminder that “when you least expect, opportunity walks through the door…and there you are, right in the middle of what you love…”

‘Finding My Way Back To Then’

Dancing in the backyard
Kool-aid moustache and butterfly wings
Hearing Andrea McArdle sing
From the hi-fi in the den
I’ve been waiting my whole life
To find a way back to then

I aimed for the sky
A nine-year-old can see so far
I’ll conquer the world and be a star
I’ll do it all by the time I’m ten
I would know that confidence
If I knew a way back to then

So I bailed on my hometown
And became a college theatre dork
I was eastbound and down
Moving to New York
So I crammed my life in a U-Haul
To find my part of it all

But the mundane sets in
We play by the rules
And plough through the days
The years take us miles away
From the time we wondered when
We’d find a way back to then

And when you least expect
Opportunity walks through the door
You suddenly connect
With the thing that you forgot
That you were looking for

And there you are
Right in the middle of what you love
With the craziest of company
You’re having a kick-ass time
And being who you wanted to be in this world

You’re that little girl
With her wings unfurled
Flying again
Back in your backyard dancing
I found a way back to then.