I hated We are the World
when it played on heavy rotation back
when I was 17 & MTV still had videos
& Casey Kasem wasn’t dead
& I could belt out every tune on America’s Top 100 in front
of my bedroom mirror.
This song never made it on my mixtapes.
But here was the documentary streaming on Netflix.
& maybe because I’m a Gen X-er,
or because I was almost done
with my bottle of Josh,
or because there was nothing left to binge
because I can’t seem to ever find a good
sleep, I gave it a whirl —
& Michael Jackson couldn’t play an instrument so he hummed the tune to life.
& MJ & Lionel started writing ten days before the recording
& they created lyrics with no time left to spare.
& Cindy Lauper’s boyfriend told her not to show.
& Prince decided he was too good to appear,
& Madonna didn’t get an invite.
& I never noticed they didn’t grace the video.
& I saw on TikTok that a teacher played We are the World
to her 8th grade class and they couldn’t name
a single star.
& Christie kissed Billy Joel, wished him luck, waved goodbye.
& Springsteen rented a Corvette from the airport,
drove himself to the studio, parked across the street.
& Quincy told them to check their egos at the door.
& Huey’s knees shook.
& Dylan was too nervous to sing.
& Jarreau was too drunk to find keys.
& Stevie Wonder led Ray Charles to the restroom.
& it was 3:00 am & they were all so human
& humble & blurry-eyed as they asked for each others’ autographs
& ate takeout on the studio floor.
& I pretend my kids would find all this cool too.
& it was 5:05 AM & they broke
into song: Daylight come and we want to go home
& this made me laugh out loud.
& I don’t want it to end.
& I think Harry Belafonte died last year.
& I didn’t know Kenny Rogers passed during Covid.
& so many of them are dead or nearing eighty.
& most of them in ‘85 were twenty years younger
than I am tonight–