The pale faced girl stands front stage, middle. She cries to the camera. Her aunty pushes the microphone close to echo every sob. Centre show, the mirrored finished gold plated 250K coffin reflects his family. Billions standby watching, revelling in their hysterical grief, weeping for lost talent, weeping for pop songs and musical horror videos.
Who will they read about in their daily news?
Who will provide paparazzi scandals of changing colour and sexual misdemeanours?
The pale faced girl sobs for her moon walking dad, her childhood star, surrounded. And damaged. Her Michael buys children and proudly states he sleeps with boys. Naïve. Rich. Extravagant. The crowd has memories of Bubbles and Ben ; a balcony child; white gloves and skinny black legs. Remembering the busting talent and betrayal.
This lost child died alone, just like his ex-father-in-law, Elvis.
M☻g
This is an interesting prose poem. Not sure what I can say, it shows the uneasiness that I felt over the whole MJ debacle. Children so carefully guarded during his life, to the extent they wore veils or masks everywhere they went, are suddenly thrust into the full media spotlight and made to grieve on cue. It's just not right, none of it is.
ReplyDeleteI have wondered if it is ok to write a poem that is so much in the moment. Does this piece of work have any value for the future? Probably not as we will all forget MJ's death and funeral etc. I guess what I have learnt is that poetry is good for putting down how you feel about an event in order for the writer to exorcise their unease about it. Anyway that is what I was doing here.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still don't know if this really is a prose poem - I still don't know what they are. Interestingly Stephen Fry in his book about poetry mentions many forms but not the prose poem. Is there a reason for this, I wonder? I have yet to find a clear description of a prose poem and what differentiates it from just a short piece of prose - language possibly yes but some prose is very poetic so maybe not.
Can anyone help me in this debate?
M☻g