Vienna Waits for You
A submission for this week’s Stories from the Jukebox prompt, “Vienna” by Billy Joel.
Occasionally, I post outside my usual Thursday rhythm when something moves me to reflect. This is one of those times.
Each week, fellow substacker MJ Polk offers a song prompt in his Stories from the Jukebox. This is my first attempt at a submission, and it’s poetry which is outside my normal wheelhouse, so we’ll see how it goes. You can read the prompt and other submissions here.
My next regular post will drop on Thursday morning. This Thursday will be a reflection on the tension between private journaling and public writing. Subscribe below to recieve this and other reflections in your inbox.
Vienna Waits for You
by: Craig J. Sefa
lines in italics are quoted from “Vienna”
Out my North Carolina window, ice glistens on the evergreen leaves Calm Quiet Slow Peaceful While in Minneapolis, ICE fires into innocent lives and fractured streets Frenzied Shouting Rushed Afraid Slow down, you crazy child… If you’re so smart, tell me Why are you still so afraid? You’d better cool it off before you burn it out. Vienna waits for you. A hundred years ago, not one of us existed. A hundred years from now, not one will remain. What a waste of such a short time Fighting Killing Bleeding Dying For what? Why are you still so afraid? Wannabe heroes in tactical gear – like live-action GI Joes, unaware of the fragile rubber bands holding it together for now. They will rot. They will snap. Vienna waits for you. You think you’re tough. You think you’ve won. But life is not a game. Here one moment, gone the next – you and your enemy the same. You’ve got your passion you’ve got your pride but don’t you know that only fools are satisfied? Masks and guns cannot prevent your final breath. When will you realize – Vienna waits for you? So take your phone off the hook and disappear for a while It’s all right – you can afford to lose a day or two. Take off the mask Breathe in the fresh air Slow down, you crazy child… If you’re so smart, tell me Why are you still so afraid? You’d better cool it off before you burn it out. Vienna waits for you. Dream of yourself forty – fifty – sixty years from now sitting by a window watching the ice fall. Will it glisten peacefully on the leaves or will it still be shooting in the streets? When Vienna comes, what memories will haunt our dreams? Will cruelty, hatred, rage, and fear be our only companions in the end? Our children and their children – will inherit the choice we make. Will they be proud of how we lived – or leave us in Vienna, to take our last breath alone? Slow down, you crazy child – Vienna waits for you.
This poem was inspired by this week’s song prompt at MJ Polk’s Stories from the Jukebox: the song “Vienna” by Billy Joel.
As a pastor, I don’t normally have much time to write on weekends, but a winter storm has shut everything down, leaving me a few extra hours to stare out my window at the ice and reflect. Where I grew up in Baltimore, they would laugh at how this tiny half inch of ice has paralyzed most of our state. The truth is, I don’t mind. Sometimes shutting everything down puts life in perspective. It slows the pace. Cools the heat.
So does this week’s song. “Vienna” puts time itself in perspective. The end of life waits for us all, often much sooner than we expect. The things we fight so hard to control now will be little more than a page in a history book 100 years from now, and future generations will argue about whether we got it right or wrong.
I’m not pretending that there are not clear wrongs, injustices, or even evil in the chaos of our present moment. But I am pausing long enough to reflect on the ultimate futility of power, control, hatred, anger, and fear. Is that all we have inherited from those who have gone before? Is there nothing more we have to offer those who come after?
As you listen to the song and reflect on the poem above, imagine yourself forty, fifty, or even sixty from now.
What memories will you carry?
How will your children or others remember the life you lived?
What small step can you take today that might bring you closer to the values you hope to leave behind?
Thank you for this thought reflecting submission Craig 🙏