In 2017, Steve Whitmire
is ushered away from the role
of Kermit the Frog,

and the internet
forgets how to cope,

and by the internet
I mean Muppet fans,
and by Muppet fans
I mean three hundred or so people,

and this is not the first time
I have watched a temple
be torn down by my community
or by my own brain.

This is not the first time
I have dug a grave
for a person still living.

To admire a celebrity with the whole of you
only to tuck them away,
pretend you never loved them
is a hurt we must bury within ourselves.
How do you begin to talk
about the death of an obsession?

How Steve was the first I truly admired.
I mean, obviously after Jim,
Jim is everyone’s first,
but Steve gave me a reason to stay.

The golden-haired,
wide-eyed youth
who was all smiles and laughter
in his earliest days.

My first Kermit.
If anything, I cannot deny him that.

How Steve picked up the reigns,
allowed this franchise to keep on.
I know he was not alone in this,
but still,
he was the one who said, “I will do it.”
Did not flinch.
Well, maybe once,
but still.

Took up the green.
Dusted off the banjo.
Brought back the rainbows.
To watch this man
be consumed by the ugly and the cruel
has left me gutted,
has flickered out something sacred in me.

How he turns a sea of fans into a warzone
and calls it justice.

And here,
here is the thing that eats me alive:
to love a franchise so heavily dominated by men
is more difficult than I can say,
yet I do it,

say this franchise is worth my time and my love,
say these are good men whom I can trust,
only to find betrayal on his tongue.

Maybe that is the challenge of it all.

To feel a closeness to these performers,
address them by first name in conversation
as if we are old friends.

Only to realize we know nothing about them.
Only to feel used at day’s end.
I dig the grave deeper
and deeper and deeper.
I place his name at the bottom,
and I promise to not come back,

but I know that I will.

I know I will come back
each and every day
with flowers,

always fresh and
always beautiful and
always green.