Miss My Heroes Poem by John Sensele

Luminaries who lit up my life are no more
Leaving lacrimonous glands to live
Beyond their feats that no one can ignore
For each icon tonnes of tender time they give

As Michael Jackson thrilled my life from the age of five
And enjoined me not to stop till I got enough
But now I strive
To lap up all the song stuff

Complemented by Percy Sledge's velvet voice
Reminding me I'd be the last one to know
If a woman wove wrong fabric by choice
Even though such gaffs grow

Low leverage as I muse over Soul Brother number one
Who mesmerized Zambia with Sex Machine
Which titillated Zambian hearts JB won
Hands down in a manner clean

When I remember Muhammed Ali who danced like a butterfly
And stung like a bee at the time his rope a dope won him back
His World Title in the rumble in the jungle to make me cry
Tasteless tears as my heart memories whack

To shreds, but I can't forget Prince
Who knew why doves cry
Although he wanted to wince
Worrying about being someone's lover on the fly

While I reminisce over icons who populated
In a real remit my village
Where I salute my valiant heroes who included
Franco Luambo, Pepe Kalle, Pepe Ndombe, Papa Wendo, Papa Wemba and Tabu Ley whose message

Entertained, educated and elongated my knowledge
In so many wondrous ways
I'm lost for words on the edge
Of despair during a moment of reflection which strays

Into the metaphysics of why my heroes
Should leave a vacuum I can't stomach for my paradigm
Has shifted in lifts beyond zeros
Beyond a dollar, beyond a dime

For I miss pillars on whom I leaned
For succour and inspiration
Which have since fled
And I ruminate the depth of my affection

Heroes elicited from my trembling tether
Attached to Nelson Madiba Mandela, a sagacious sage son of Africa
For which he suffered indignity and bother
Which singed, stole and stifled much of his life because he couldn't surrender to a treacherous troika

At the time Blues Boy King reigned supreme
Strumming Lucille
And the while he would aim
To prove the groove that's greater still

Although folks who cry why I ignore Lily T
Whose advice alongside PJ
And other Zambian performers who use IT
Play a pivotal part in paying a deejay.