Dan Hartman is dead
and you don’t care.
His finest accomplishment
was ghosting the song
of a fake band
in a fantasy movie
that nobody really saw.

You might have seen it
but you probably don’t remember.
It was a great song
and the movie was great
in its strange little way
but
it didn’t go far
and neither did Dan
who is now dead.

He is like all of us
(no.
Not the dead part
– though a lot of us are like that,
too) in that
he accomplished much
but
in too small a way
for too many to care.

Who recalls Dan Hartman?
Even though he is like all of us
– the living ones
and the dead, as well.
Who thinks of him now?
Who can still dream about Dan Hartman?