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AN OZZY OSBOURNE SESTINA
by Magdalena Alagna


On Hearing About Ozzy's Reality TV Show

Ozzy Osbourne is on a T.V. show
With his daughter Kelly and his son Jack
And his wife Sharon. Jack is sixteen,
Kelly's seventeen, and Ozzy is old,
Ozzy, once the frontman for Black Sabbath,
Who sang the lead vocals for Crazy Train,

Is 54. In my thirties, I've trained
Myself for the office. I never show
The girl in me who still loves Black Sabbath.
Dull at work, my heart hammers like a jack-
Rabbit entrapped in thirty-two-year-old
Skin that shows the excesses of sixteen

Years ago when I was every inch sixteen,
Sneaking red wine and smoking and training
For the stage. Even today, how those old
Addictions twist in me and plainly show
Up everyday tedium: the Black Jack
Life slaps me: It hits me, there is no Sabbath

Like in my Catholic days and no Sabbath
Like the way Ozzy sang for them, sixteen
Years ago, his voice immediate, jack-
Knifing, cutting clean the way a train
Displaces air. I think of Ozzy's show,
Lay bare unavoidable fact: He's old;

Ozzy Osbourne's my father's age. My old
Friend Jim still calls me sweet leaf, a Black Sabbath
Song. He still calls, still talks about the shows
We saw together when we were sixteen
I tell him Jim, don't you see, we entrain
Our pasts like ragged ghosts, silly Jack

Ass, I'm still metal, but I've had jackshit
For epiphany since sixteen, and now we're old, Jim,
And where is the Sabbath that we trained for?