one of us/one of you
noel gallagher finishes his set
before 10 pm like a proper 50-year-old man should
he ends with a cover of the beatles
all you need is love
introducing the song by saying
this was written by a man who used to be
one of us
but then he became one of you
meaning lennon
and it’s a good end to the concert
one big long sing-a-long
one more chance for the oasis blokes in the audience
to pump their fists and spill their pints to the past
but truth be told i’m tired
tired of being sober over over-priced drinks
tired of standing like some gushing teen over rock idols
and it’s a long way back to lower brooklyn
where my wife and i will find out the next morning
that seventeen people were shot to death in parkland florida
another school shooting in the land
where killing kids is as american
as institutional racism and apple pie
but we will try to talk past the massacre
over morning tea and coffee and sourdough toast
discuss what we want to do with the day
like people who have lives worth living
a movie? a museum exhibit?
we will go back to noel and revisit the concert
the songs we liked
the ones we wished he played
idiot oasis fans who didn’t know the new stuff
how noel slipped a bit of the rutles into the end of
all you need is love
and did anybody else notice?
i think back to what he said about john lennon
being one them
becoming one of us/one of you
maybe noel had something else there other than location
when he said that lennon became one of you
because john lennon was murdered in cold blood
on the streets of new York
for next to nothing
and what could be more american
than dying like that?
--John Grochalski
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