I Know Why David Bowie Did Drugs - November 29, 2022 at Open Mic Surgery
Channel: Poetry for Cowards
Date: 2022-12-06

I Know Why David Bowie Did Drugs 

Because he sat with his legs crossed on the talk show sound stage 
in front of a nondescript pale blue backdrop with a pleasant smile  
in a pleasant mid-century modern leather chair, next to a man  
in a dark gray suit and a blue dress shirt, wearing the  
clothes he picked out to look how he felt, and  
he was beautiful and nervous and thoughtful 
when asked about God and this fan letters 
and then the interviewer asked 
David Bowie 
if he was wearing  
men’s shoes 
or women’s shoes 
or bisexual shoes. 

And  
David Bowie  
had to explain  
to the interviewer 
and all the fucking world; 
to every schoolyard bully and  
Alice and Jenny and Liz on the playground; 
to every mother of a boy, dancing  
in a dress to Wham! in the living room 
of a raised ranch in the wooded suburbs of 
every miserable town in every place on the planet  
in the clearest voice possible that he was just wearing some shoes.