To Prince, on his 65th Birthday
Your music hasn’t aged a bit,
although the rest of us surely have.
Whenever we hear your songs playing,
it’s as if 1984 has magically returned
and everything that’s happened since then
is again part of our great, unknowable futures.
That’s what draws us to music in the first place:
escaping from the lives we currently lead;
returning to the time when our lives weren’t settled yet;
recalling the friends and family we’ve lost;
realizing music follows us through all of life’s changes.
We were denied the opportunity
to see and hear from you in your senior years,
but are supremely fortunate
for the musical legacy you left behind.
