A Celebrity Died

A celebrity has died

And no cares about

My second cousin

Who died a week ago

Suddenly
Unexpectedly

Of what we think

Might be a heart attack

But nobody is sure

He didn’t do anything

My second cousin

He did lots of things

But he was never famous

And never rich

And he was never in anybody’s

Favorite movie

But it’s sad

When a person dies

And it’s sad

When a celebrity dies

And it’s sad

When people know

And it’s sad

When people don’t know

And nobody knew about my second cousin

Except for his parents

And his ex-girlfriend

And his co-workers

And the guys he played ‘Stop, Don’t Start’ with

And I don’t know how to play ‘Stop, Don’t Start’

But I found out what it was

At the funeral

When the guys who played it with him

Showed up

To give their condolences

A celebrity died

And people are mad

That more people are sad

About the celebrity

Than people who aren’t

Celebrities

But when the celebrity died

A collective experience

Was lost

Or seemed to be lost

And my second cousin

Was not a collective experience

He was just a human

He got to be--

To be

Just a human

Just a human being

And maybe he was lucky

To just get to be

A human being

And not have to--

To, you know

Represent something

For other people

Because it seems to me

That would be a burden

A very great burden

That not many people

Would want to, uh, undertake

I wonder if people

Are jealous

That when a celebrity dies

The grief is shared

Among so many

And so it’s…

Maybe it’s more bearable?

Or maybe it’s worse

My second cousin’s mother

Is a jealous woman

And wants to own

To own

Uh, everything

And I’m sure she’d want to own

Every bit of that grief

The grief she feels

And she’s, you know,

Entitled to feel

It’s just--

A celebrity died today

And two hours after they died

A person online

Said that people die everyday

Like this was some grand observation

That nobody else had ever made before

And then somebody brought up

Soldiers who die in war

And get no fanfare

But they get a flag, don’t they?

At their funeral?

My second cousin wasn’t a soldier

And didn’t do much

So all he got was a funeral

And not a very big one

Someone online mentioned

That the celebrity who died

Did something bad once

But my second cousin

Bullied a kid in high school

And it stuck with that kid

And that kid turned into an adult

Who killed himself

But other than that

My second cousin was pretty nice

But does it matter?

Should we be celebrating people

Who have done real damage in the world

And who among us

Hasn’t done real damage?

I walked out

On my family

Two weeks ago

I walked out

And today a celebrity died

And everybody wants to be sad

And nobody wants to let

Anybody be sad

So nobody’s sure

What to be

Or how to feel

About it