*Mozart's Mistakes

I had this concept in my head and wanted to so something with it.

Mozart's Mistakes
by me

Michael Jackson never would have had to write
“Heal the World”
so I would never have to get that clichéd, horrible song
stuck in my head—though I’ll never
admit that I have all the lyrics dancing in my head.

But no, he did. He had do.
What choice did he have?

Ted Kazinski, nine-eleven, Oklahoma City…
just names and dates
rather than chapters in history books.
The Middle East would just be a dusty
spot on the map that school kids would learn and then
forget after the test.

Stupid Mozart.
He never made a mistake.
His music is beautiful and timeless,
the tones linger in opera houses and
movie soundtracks,
elevator muzak and department store backgrounds.
The man never made a mistake!
Or did he?
Think about it:
maybe he did make a mistake or two along the way,
but his pride didn’t let him fix them, so he settled for
“The Magic Flute” and “Cossi fan tutti.”
Or maybe he was great when he was young, and by the
time he aged, he just didn’t care anymore.
Or maybe, just maybe, he knew he was missing an occasional note,
a minor chord here, a dulcet melody there—
and he didn’t want to risk being too perfect,
more perfect than he already was.

He was great—no question.
Dead for 200 years and he’s still the best.
But could he have been better?
If he had fixed those mistakes that he insisted were not mistakes—
the mistakes that we don’t know are mistakes
because we’re not smart enough to see them—
think of what he could have accomplished.
Instead of becoming a legend, Mozart could have been a god.
He could have fixed the world,
not just entertained it.

I wouldn’t have to double-check the locks on my car door when I
drive by a group of dark-looking young men
in the city.

I may even have rolled down my window and waved.

I love the concept, but I'm not sure I like the way it came out. I'm just trying to prove the point that it's absurd to say that the man never made a mistake. EVERYONE makes mistakes and to believe that someone was perfect at his craft is absolutely rediculous. The greatest minds throughout history were not perfect people, I'm sure. I'll bet if you talked to Mrs. Gandhi she'd tell us that her hubby snored in his sleep. I'm sure that Mrs. Plato hated her husband's foot odor. To think that Mozart was perfect just shows that we forget the truth and only remember the fictionalized version of history.