Midnight Pie

Are you going to miss the pie?

I mean, me
I know you're going to miss me
You're going to miss me insanely
I would imagine anyway
I would hope

Any sane person would

But the bigger question is
Are you going to miss the midnight pie?

You see, where you're going
They don't have midnight pie
Sure, they might have other things
Midnight coffee
Midnight bowling
Maybe even midnight haircuts

But they won't have midnight pie
With blueberry
Actual blueberry
Practically dripping out of the top

And if you don't like blueberry
They won't have substitutes
Free substitutes
That you don't get charged for
Like apple
Strawberry
Peach and banana

As long as you order it after midnight
And before 4am
At the O'Toole Diner
You can have any kind of midnight pie you want

But you can only have it here

I know there are other reasons to leave
I've thought of leaving too, you know
But somehow I just can't imagine
Any place better
That doesn't have O'Toole's Blueberry Midnight Pie

Crazy as that sounds

I was eating this pie
The night I got my license
My dad took me
For a late-night celebratory slice
And two weeks after he passed away
I came here and got the same slice
I cried all over it
But it still tasted good
Pretty soon I ate the whole thing
And I wasn't crying anymore

How do you figure that?

I was eating this pie
The night after prom
When we were all drunk
And acting stupid
This pie sobered us up
Kept us from being even stupider
Stopped a lot of girls from getting pregnant
And stopped me from going to a particular house
Shouting up love poems at the window
At the window of someone
I thought I loved

Thank God for Peach and Banana

I was eating this pie
The night I first met you
You were sitting across the diner
At the booth with the blue leather
Looking down into your coffee
Like you'd lost every friend you'd ever had
And I remember feeling a compassion for you
So deep and unmistakable
Part of me wanted to go over
Pick you up into my arms
And carry you right out of here

Maybe over the years
I've confused that compassion
With actual love
Or maybe it just grew into love
Who can say?

I was happy to see you cheer up
Happy to see you move on with things
I never did figure out what made you so sad that night
I guess I wanted to believe I was the only one
Who could stop you from being sad
Me and this pie

I know why you have to leave
I know everyone else already has
That there's something pulling at you
And that until you find a place that gives you something
Something you feel you can hold onto
That you can never really stop moving
I understand that

I just wish I could be that thing
That thing that roots you to this place
I wish I could be your midnight pie

This isn't a sad talk
I didn't bring you out here
At this hour, no less
To give you a sad talk
Or cry, or anything like that

It's a wonderful thing loving somebody
Your heart can make you do a lot of bad things
But when it loves somebody so pure
It can make you really proud of yourself
It can make you feel as good of a person
As the person it's loving

Isn't that an amazing thing?

I've lost a lot of people in my life
Lost a lot of property too
And I'm not even that old yet
Every year it seems like something else
Gets taken away

But you know what?
Every time I think about what stays the same
Family
Friends
Midnight Blueberry Pie
I have to remember that it rains
So we can appreciate the sun more

That everybody whose left
Is just one more star in the sky
I can count on to guide me
If I ever get lost
Out in the world

Sounds hokey, doesn't it?

Yeah, maybe it is
I'm just a hokey sort of person I guess

Still, I think it's kind of wonderful
Sitting across from somebody
You've loved for such a long time
And getting to laugh with them
And talk about their plans
The night before they leave
To go off and find their roots

And share a piece of pie
Somewhere between midnight
And four am

I think that's just terrific