I was at work
in a kitchen
by the beach
cooking food,
walking around the corner
by the dishwasher, when I
got a text from my sister
that said, Michael Jackson just died
and time stopped, and honestly
I didn’t
Believe her
didn’t want
to believe
that you could
be gone so soon.
Before I got to see you dance
Just before your shows in London
and I was hoping you’d go on tour
and i wanted to cry but i couldn’t
and it tour me up
for weeks for months
all time stopped
stood still, and I
still remember the first time
I saw Thriller
The first time I fell in love
with you and your music
and your moves and grooves
and costumes and tunes
those films you made
that they call music videos
When you spun and moonwalked your
way into my heart
and I loved that making of video
where they showed you getting
your make up done
and those yellow contacts
that guy put in your eye
and all the zombie shakes and slides
even though I was too scared to
watch it alone,
And then all these years later
watching your funeral live alone
on TV and I cried like a baby
I swear it poured from my ducts
of tears, and I felt like my childhood
died that day, like the times had changed
and, “I never dreamed you’d leave in summer.”
sang through the waves through the screens in L.A.
and “just call my name, and I’ll be there.” choked up
into Ushers tears, cuz your “gone to soon.”
and honestly I was depressed for months
when you left
because of all that you meant
to me, my sister my family
the global musical community
and what you meant to us black people
even though white people wanna
say you weren’t black
or that you were a fag
or a wacko, yea they talked smack Michael
but we felt you
still feel you
we were you
when we made that change
it was you we saw in the mirror
looking back at us, in Africa
with Mandela
with all you gave us
the king, my adolescence filled with you
and me dancing in my room, and
Hey pretty baby with your high heels on, and
I wanna rock with you
all night long
the jams never do justice
to the man who grew up
with multi generational span
into the hand of the
smoothest criminal
we had ever met, and
Don’t stop till ya get enough
Eh!
You wanna be startin somthin
heel click tap slide
by slide
I just can’t stop loving you
He he he!
If your thinking bout my baby,
it don’t matter if your black or white.
uh!
crotch grab
spin,
to your toes
Bang bang shot dead, everybody gone mad,
all I wanna say is they don’t really care about us.
Hat flip to your arm
down to your neck back
to your head again
cock forward
“cuz the lie becomes the truth hey ya”
“what have done to the world? look at what we’ve done..”
Or how my parents watched
you with your purple hat
and little boy moves
cuz, “I sit around
with my head hanging down
and I wonder whose lovin you”
spins arms in your front
then out to side,
repeat to the other
rock back and forth
as “ABC” 123
so simple as the hips pump
back and forth to your kiss
on TV with Elvis’ daughter
“tell them that it’s human nature”
“get up get up”
up onto your toes and hold
fall back to heels
“we are the world”
feet swap in front of each other
sequins and all, plant
pivot heel up lead leg
bent slide across the surface
of the moon. Arms raised
“because I’m bad, I’m bad”
“ahhhhhhhhhh”
subway station line
leather crotch grab
or when you turned into
that alien robot transformer
kinda thing. Forcefield and all
blowing all them army cops away
with those purple clouds floating
behind you sparks flying
Joe Pesci’s pony tail destroyed
by laser beam to pieces and
you up to space as you gyrate
and walk and strut
sexual in essence everything
you do and they were scared,
now it’s been five years
and I’m just getting around
to writing this,
and I’m sad for my kids
will only know you as
history past,
our legacy captured in time
on vinyl digital downloads
CDs’ cassette tapes VHS DVDs’
our collective consciousness
cultural dialogue, and of course
our dancing.
