Great in a Crisis

I know what to say when it isn’t happening to me I can sit on the floor at four in the morning make coffee nobody drinks find the charger make the call stay until the worst part starts getting smaller I’m good at that give me something I can actually do But mine comes in without a name and suddenly I’m very busy with anything else I’m good in a crisis when the crisis isn’t mine I can find the right words at exactly the right time I can carry the evening I can get you through the night But when it’s me I get useful I get funny I get hard to find I’ve driven across town because somebody said “Can you come?” like there was ever another answer I remember the little things who hates hospitals who needs the window cracked who wants advice who only wants somebody in the room Then somebody asks me what I need and I swear it’s like they changed the language. Give me your problem I know where to put my hands Give me mine I’ll get back to you. I’m good in a crisis when the crisis isn’t mine I can find the right words at exactly the right time I can carry the evening I can get you through the night But when it’s me I get useful I get funny I get hard to find I don’t need somebody to fix it. I think I think I just need somebody who won’t leave because I got difficult. You don’t have to say the perfect thing. You don’t even have to understand it. Stay awake. Talk about something stupid. Tell me the same story twice. Just stay. I’m good in a crisis I’ve been good at it for years I can make a bad room feel a little less severe I can carry the evening I can make it look alright But tonight don’t make me useful don’t make me funny just stay for a while I know what to do when it’s somebody else. [pause] Maybe that’s not what I need tonight.