Michael Jackson
Posted by Justin Ching | Filed under Poetry, Print
A King dies in California,
And the whole world falls to its knees,
Michael Jackson is dead,
And I guess even gods can’t live forever,
I’ve never seen a man walk on water,
But I have witnessed one in a rhinestone suit moon-walking his way across the stage,
As if Martians had invaded his body,
Too far ahead of his time for any us to understand
So he had to run it backwards,
He only grew younger,
Call him Peter Pan,
Because he taught us all how to fly,
Step by step,
Baby steps for man,
One giant leap for Neverland,
But now,
Even the children are crying.
And they should be,
Because no one loved them more,
I remember when I was six,
The first time I saw Thriller,
Only possessed the courage to stare at the screen long enough to know,
That I wanted to grow up to become a man who dared to bring the dead back to life,
Looks like Michael cracking jokes in a pediatric burn unit,
As if he could resurrect their smiles
A gloved hand scooping chocolate ice cream to the starving children of Sudan
Looks like a little boy in a cancer ward with Michael by his bedside,
Telling him stories of chimpanzees named Bubbles who shake hands with the Dali Lama and all the places he’ll go outside the hospital walls.
Where has the man in the mirror gone?
The one who always looks past himself to give the world a hand,
I wonder if Atlas ever stops dancing,
Or does he rock the earth as if it were meant to tremble
Maybe that’s why our knees still quake when we hear the sound of his voice,
Michael Jackson,
Lay down your load
It’s time for us to walk on our own,
I hope heaven is more weightless than the moon,
And no longer need rhinestones shine.
Thank you,
For reminding us how it feels to be a kid again,
We’d almost forgotten what it’s like to play hide and seek with our best friend,
And end up losing him forever.
One Response to “Michael Jackson”
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Herman Says:
October 16th, 2009 at 8:26 am| Michael Jackson is truly the King of Pop. i am a die hard fan of him and we are going to miss him now that he is gone.
