for David Bowie
I watched him/bending time/young chameleon
wielding power/bowing bold before mirrors
of change/a dancing hero/playing brave /
pointing his finger at suicide/his voice loud
impatient/dramatic/constrained inside
ascending chords/suddenly caught/he's
breathing in/vulnerable now/down to a whisper
emotion begins to soften the sound/still in sync
his magician's hands/eternal the hands
of the white-faced mime/he's Peter Pan/defining
the cracks in our existence/his fingers find a chink
in the wall/to break through blissfull/only to fall
back to the shadow/of a black cabaret/staring now
mocking the monster/knowing the monster is himself
taunting logic/spruiking magic/loving the image in the
mirror/his fallible friend for this fragment of time
applying the glitter/the superficial gloss/standing tall
in red plastic platform boots/discussing death behind
the door/stirring leaves in cemeteries/hovering in
shadows/surveying tombs/consorting with aliens
and other beings/like poets and players/strut their
stage/he gives himself over to the pose and the play
the triumph and the terror/of this brief script
in the spotlight/eyes straight ahead/arms reaching
for heaven/a hero surviving/scoffing at life
raging at dying
Pamela Sidney 2003
