The Joke Backfired (Poetry)

For Justin Bieber fans everywhere

It wasn’t fair
no joke should ever be so cruel
or lacking humour to redeem
its shallow awfulness.

How can they know
they will eventually outgrow
that all-consuming pash
any more than any one of us
caught in our first all-or-nothing crush
on Lennon or McCartney... Elvis... Cliff
could imagine it would fade with time
and leave just some warm
vague and wistful
memory behind.

Such a cheap unfunny trick
announcing he’s now fighting the big C
and fans should shave their heads to show
support in ghastly unity
if distraught enough to follow
and believe.

Too late for some
they heard he isn’t sick —
all a tasteless hoax
by some sad maybe jealous mind
with little else to do
but sow some random misery.

But oh the things that love
can make us out of desperation do!
Too late for hair
spread on the bathroom floor
the evidence of grief expressed
and even knowing it will grow again
each sacrifice is clear
done in good faith.

It could be said the joke backfired
for he now knows
the lengths to which true fans will go —
their loyal devotedness.

* * * * *

The young heart’s seldom wise
it loves in vain
mends quickly — finds new gods
and loves again...again...

And yet I know it’s true
should I ever meet
my aging sixties pin-up
I’d fall down at his feet.