We Woke Up in Queens
“If you are emotionally invested in this Mets team and you’re sad right now, it’s certainly understandable. But I promise you, that won’t take long to wear off if it ends here because, once the immediate disappointment, if they don’t pull off some kind of magical comeback here, wears off, you’ll realize what an incredible ride this team took you for this year.”
-Howie Rose, Mets Broadcaster
Dear Reader,
The night lingered a little longer here in Queens and all of us Mets faithful woke up as if from a dream. The season is over. The magic is done. A great gaping void lies between us and Spring Training, where we will attempt to bottle magic again, or at least that’s what we hope.
For now, poetry will have to do.
It seems silly to write a poem about a baseball team. But poetry has always been about finding beauty in unlikely places. Like a struggling baseball team who for a few brief months rode the wings of fate and did something few sports teams ever do—they made us all believe in magic. For that the 2024 Mets deserve a poem, a reminder that this season was beautiful because it was fleeting, that eventually the fairytale has to end. Yes, I want a World Series ring. But a little magic might be what we all needed, and that my friends is worth all the rings.
Enjoy!
-Ryan
WE WOKE UP IN QUEENS To the New York Mets, Thank You. (10/21/24) We woke up this morning Convinced it was all a dream, a fantasy you cobble together with the spare scraps littered ‘round your subconscious— the broken bits of hopes and dreams we sweep beneath the rug because living is just too hard. Then again, that’s what makes ‘em special, those fleeting hints of joy. Here one moment, gone the next, like a baseball looking for wind willing itself over the right field fence while boys and girls in rally caps wait with bated breath and for a moment know what it’s like to look up at the sky and against their better judgement spread their wings and fly.