Prince Rogers Nelson, 1958-2016

"Adore" was my song
Back in '87-
Cool beans, I liked to say,
Desperately uncool.
Except for you.
Florida, a dirty hand
Gesture; the state, pay dirt.
Headphones on, I heard,
In a word, you were sex,
Just in time. Who was I
Kidding? Then, as now,
Love is too weak to define.
Mostly I just ran,
Not yet sixteen,
Overreaching. Track star,
Pretty uniform.
Queer, of course. Adore.
Rewind: my beloved teammates
Sometimes called me Cinnamon
Until the end of time.
Vanity would never do it for me.
Would you? You were definite, the
X in my fix. And now,
You're gone. The old, on repeat. The new
Zeal: zero.


About this poem
"Prince's death hit me hard. It brought me closer to his music and to a confusing, beautiful time, at 15, when I played 'Adore' on repeat; the italicized lines are from the song. This poem is for my friends Sabina Piersol and Miguel Murphy, who love Prince so much."
-Randall Mann

About Randall Mann
Randall Mann is the author of "Straight Razor" (Persea Books, 2013). He lives in San Francisco.

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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2016 Randall Mann. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate