A Poem on the 2009 MEA Annual Meeting by David Cheezem

At the annual meeting of the Matanuska Electric Association

The line of members waiting to register
for ballots and prizes is not the place
for eavesdropping. Too much music here,
too many timbres and pitches interlaced,
a choir in Carharts, jeans, or collared shirts.
Phrases rise and fall: snowmachines
on blocks for the summer, ash in the dirt,
a volcanic gift to the gardens. Sometimes
a song political emerges. “Taxes”
is heard. “Common sense is all it is”
someone bellows -- sharpening axes
for the real debate to come, perhaps.
But mostly it's parents and children keeping
time,
the popcorn music of waiting in line.