“Mister Rockstar”

By Thomas Page

I am student teaching a senior level class in Washington, DC. They have to write some poems on these prompts. I decided to try all 30 of them. However, I will not say what the prompt was but what it number was.

Prompt #26

Dear Mister Rockstar,

Wherever you may be

Whatever mess may be on your desk

I hope this letter finds you well

As you do whatever you’re doing now.

From where I’m looking,

I can’t know what you will have gone

In planned tours of the mind

Maybe in cities not founded yet

Or cities soon to be forgotten.

Did you ever write the song I suggested

Even though I didn’t hum a tune?

Are the words flowing from your mouth matching your heart

Hoping to define yourself as clearly as you can?

Did you ever shirk the glare blocking your eyes

So that you don’t become Daedalus’ son?

Have you freed your hands from that prison

Tucked like a bookmark?

Mister Rockstar,

Are you the person who you hoped to be

Or the person who think others want to be

Or someone compromised into nothing?

I know, where you are on stage,

That you blur all of the insecurities

And belt like a cardinal on a winter tree

All that you ever thought wouldn’t be.

Dear Mister Rockstar,

Climb onto that stage

If you haven’t.