On a plane this past March

as I flew from DC to KC

I found myself fast asleep

for much of the first part of the trip.

As I slept my dreams turn’d away

from the thoughts of that past day

and into a vision of some great orchestra

a chorus behind, playing that fam’d

1812 Overture of Tchaikovsky’s making.

It roared in my head, filling the mind

as ever it could with sound

abounding throughout the inner ear.

Yet the noise woke me,

forc’d me to recognise my place.

And as I open’d my eyes,

the music came to a grand finale

as the orchestra had stopped

the men of the chorus continued

singing triumphantly their final refrain

the melody from God Save the Tsar

resounded in my ears from within

triumphantly welcoming me

to the skies over Indiana.

Never before has a dream

been so grandiose as to remain

in my memory for months thereafter

as that chorus on that cold March day.