A lot of things happen when you’re on the road
That you don’t necessarily want to process fully until you know
You don’t have to take the stage and avoid falling completely apart
After all people pay good money to see and hear you
Perform confidently with hope and uplift, irrepressible
It’s hard, then, not to let tears fall finally when you know
You have time to acknowledge the loss of someone
So gifted, so extraordinary, so altogether
Undeniably transcendent as a human being and artist
Michaela DePrince has been on my mind these last few days
I’ve read the articles in the tour van I’ve scrolled
Through the never-enough praise the shock-waves
But I didn’t want to believe it or let it sink in
And the story of her mother passing just before
She could have heard of the loss of her precious daughter
It’s too much and now I can’t stop thinking
Why why why and remembering there is no logic
To this fleeting life we lead the most explosive
Things we feel are the ones that seem to bring
Us the most confusion how beauty and grace and inspiration
Can evaporate in a heartbeat leaving only remnants of
Commiseration loss is such a conundrum making us
Appreciate life and each other’s uniquely courageous experience
Just in time to remember we are enough until the next
Roller-coaster contrives to shake us with the sheer contradiction of being
So alive we feel each other’s hearts beating halfway
Around the world and tears turn us into well-springs of reverential sadness
