Amy Winehouse is Dead -- A Memorial Poem

by Kat Georges

Amy Winehouse is dead.

She joined the 27 club with fellow members

Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison & Cobain.

I didn't think the young rebel stars

still died these days. That way.

It's a game these days.

You watch them self-destruct online

then they are cured and their careers

go down the drain.

But not this time.

Amy Winehouse is dead.

Her jazzy throaty swirl bent the rules

and brought her fame. It was her

who bent my ears and made me

pay attention, sway. Those words,

so today, swimming in a stream of

olden beats and minor riffs.

She sang about rehab and vodka and love

and cheating and heartache and pills and

scoring and pubs and baths and bed and

sex and life and lust and hurt and fear

and yes it was pop but it was so deep

and heavy and light at the same time

and you got the feeling that she knew

she knew

she knew something about the core

the center the invisible needles that

sew us up in modern society. The things

that make us rot and make us thrive and

are more real that fluff that is the stuff

we now believe in. She was under skin

and twisted the fake smiles that became

the norm when everyone got their own

camera phone. And she is dead, she's

gone, she ain't coming back.

She's not going to Rehab. She's not going

anywhere. Amy Winehouse is dead and all

those gossip pages are going to have to

find someone new to tear to pieces.

She should have known better Mick and Keith

said. We made the mistakes so she wouldn't

have to. Talking like fathers about their errant

daughter. Daughters don't listen. The ones like

Amy Winehouse have to strip it down, they have

to burn the finish, they got to get to the core and

build fresh. These days it takes a lot of work

to undo the layers of who you are supposed to be.

Amy Winehouse is dead. She stripped it to the core.

She made me burn hearing words and a voice that

slipped in and out of the unreal she made real.

And she is dead. She is gone. She is finished.

She is done. Amy Winehouse is dead and every

Twitter feed and Facebook status update broadcasts

the fact that it was -- after all -- just a matter of time.

Omitting that fact that it's just a matter of time for us all.

Some burn slow. Some bright. Some dim.

And some burn with such intensity they glimmer

in their sleep. A glow. Amy Winehouse is dead.

They all say we told you so.

and then they say

Who's next?