Uneasy Respites From Fame

'Cocaine is God's way of saying
"You have too much money"'
-Elton John, post rehab circa 1987
though he had a long way to go
to discover safer addictions, like shopping.

After cocaine came crack cocaine-
the intense but brief high that matches
the adulation popular singers gain
from their public acclaim,
the balm that calms how the power of fame
feeds into feeling hollow and needy.

With crack the voice declines faster
than the money disappears,
and the acclaim of the press
morphs into a morbid prurience,
from which there is no return.

Happy Birthday David Bowie,

who turned 65 yrs old yesterday.
To fill their pages the press reran
all his greatest publicity hits.
He did nothing:
like the best illusionists'
he knew when to stop,
the better to leave a good impression.