GETTING EVERYTHING

This is the opening song from a show about a troubled psychotherapist I wrote in the mid-1980s, which had a showcase production in the former Commons Theatre in Chicago. It’s stayed with me as an ode to our fragility and a reminder of how miraculous and mysterious it is when people get together and stay together. –J. Linn Allen

Susan met Ronnie

They ran off to Boulder

Ronnie is drinking

Susan looks older

Robert and Anne found truth

In Beethoven quartets

Now Robert plays Bach all night

Anne has her pets

Always is sometimes

Completely is kind of

The only love you find

Is take-what-you-find love

Grasping at straws is life’s

Most typical act

Soon all the straws you’ve grasped

Are breaking your back

Sharon ran out on Vic

To remarry her ex.

Vic’s become Vicky

He’s ex from his sex