Memento Mori

poetry

Photo by Vitaly Mazur on Unsplash

Memento Mori

On the day that Mozart 
hit a false note
Buddy, Richie and the Big Bopper
went out on a wing to smoke
Bach lost  
the will to compose
we all froze

Mama said I was too young
to go to the funeral
not ready to learn about
unresolved chords
or unfinished symphonies

I felt the chill 
of a church organ
playing on its own
candles lighting themselves
I knew Daddy wouldn’t
be coming home

On the day I got 25 stitches
in my hand
I stopped calling him
The Sandman, Papa Snuff
The Grim Reaper
They said I’d lost a fight
with a brick building 

It was then I called 
him a friend, a guide to
invisible realms
my personal AI assistant
He’s there behind me
on the wall as always

Ready to help
every time I fall
into a somnambulist trance
sleeptalking, sleepwalking
zombie shuffling

Come friend 
let us fight no more
Wake Mozart, Bach 
Buddy and the rest
Wake me to the music
and light playing
in all of us