A STAGE FOR GHOSTS

I arrived from the séance defeated

To witness a dance of stardust’s ghost

On His regular haunt, the stage, the stage!

Let his fanged band play a gallant host



To the matinee!

While the ambulance arrives, I’m seated

And bow a head in reverence,

To Bowie’s grail, mourn loss to the reverend

His church spire hangs for me in silence

His concert marred by sirens, flashing violent

Her jagged reflection spears the pool

The primas exit stage left, the dusk gold fades to black

A night velvet cloak for an ailing ghoul


The stage, the stage!

With funeral crown, grassy skirts and tresses

With starlight spirits in the prettiest dresses

With my doomed head trenched in Ziggy’s yard

Pastel railings fence in the hounds

The band strums gritty tunes without a sound


I sit and watch them for a while

With my boa constrictor smile

My weighty neck holds a mother

Her legacy chained and coiled

Her jewel and stone to mark the spot

Her soul sunk beneath Beckenham soil


One cotton swab wipes the grief from my face

The stage, the stage! Sirens and parched leaves

Our adoring crowd rustles in the breeze

At play’s end spilling red on the bill’s last page

Now there’s a Starman waiting in the sky

For another chance at life, rejoin their ghosts onstage

If we only weren’t afraid to die