AGING ROCKERS RAGING

Why do I love them so much, why are they so
necessary, so healing?  These grizzled
ones, still raging in their leathers,
their faces only a little less leathery
than their clothes?  Who else in our time
has spoken so defiantly to the dying
of the light?  David Johansen honoring
Lou Reed with the Velvets’ angry, grieving
“Sweet Nuthin’.”  Lou Reed mourning in
like manner John Lennon, unlocking
the furious honesty of “Jealous Guy.”
Amy Rigby and Wreckless Eric back-to-back,
wrenching from Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss
Someone” an almost joyful suffering.
You may need these someday, and all await you
down the musical rabbit hole of Youtube.
Full of a beautiful intensity
that doesn’t care how old you are, who
you love, or what you think, they have the power
to shatter the shell of our resignation
and complacency, remind us again
of what our younger selves knew, knowledge
they have preserved despite falling flesh:
how to live not in ashes but in flames.

—Thomas R. Smith

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