the stars look very different today

it’s not enough for me

to mourn David Bowie

as a musician

an artist

an actor

or as a kind human being

i mourn the transformative effect

he had on generations

i mourn him as an intellectual

as a voracious reader

a thinker

capable of making art

of his own death

.

how graceful

.

a man

who could be

a beautiful woman when he wished to

.

i mourn him as a man

who gave the conventional

the finger

and then asked,

“Where’s the glitter?”