Michael Jackson played the role of the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPVpMxVn6mk

Though their claws are terrifying, sloths are very gentle creatures and use their claws mainly to cling to tree limbs or scratch themselves (as at 00:20 in the following video).
http://vimeo.com/11712103

Beryl is a mineral. It comes in a few colors. The type I was picturing is the color of a stream.

Michael Jackson loved silk pajamas. He sometimes wore them in public. In 2005, for instance, he wore them in court. But Michael Jackson also spent a great deal of time indoors. More than one suit of his pajamas has been sold at auction for thousands of dollars.

This poem was written in 2006, while Michael Jackson was still alive. Its title comes from Richard II: “let us sit upon the ground / And tell sad stories of the deaths of kings.” But I wasn’t thinking of death in a literal sense.