I watched the TV screen and couldn't believe
real film footage of a shark attack
flesh falling loose from bone like tattered sails
dangling ruined pale fabric in the breeze
like many a movie make-up artist's vision
it looked so fake because it looked so real
'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' is now playing
a reality check on how this madness feels
In a list
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
-
This is almost meta. I got lost in it. I love the imagery in the first stanza- "flesh falling loose" -- ooh! how grotesque! I also love the "it looked so fake because it looked so real." I get easily intertwined/confused with reality when I immerse myself in too much media, and find myself unable to distinguish the two, callous. Of course, One Flew Over is madness- so are you commenting on the brazen gore that pervades today's television? OR the lack of art?
Good poem! Although a little tough for me to decipher initially- forgive me if I've misinterpreted. Effective social commentary, for sure. -
-
Hi Greenpea and thanks for reading this. I think reality TV is constantly showing us that fact is a lot stranger than fiction. My reply to the first comment here (by Dave Ochs) should shed some light on EXACTLY what this is about. Modern psychiatric care is not so differnt to 'Cuckoos Nest' - just the way 'real' shark attack wounds are even nastier than the mocked up ones in Jaws etc. Thanks for commenting. My Best to you. >W<
-
-
The horror...
the horror... -
Wonderfully layered cinema, John: a movie within a movie within a movie - that's how I see this one. Not only does a fakey, filmed shark attack look like a horrible "madness", but its documentaried, real shark attack confirms that that's just how it is, with its victim's "flesh falling loose from bone like tattered sails..." (nice line there). But further (another cinematic layer), they both reflect Nurse Ratchit's repeated emotional shark attacks at her suffering human wards - hers being a much more horrible "madness" than theirs, or any physical ripping of flesh.
Really sharply done, each image leading to another, and then to another, concluded at "The End" with those four perfect words. The poem's images are so tightly woven together that they're triple scary. Helluva good poem.
Lad. Rewarded 8
-
hey john
what are you trying to say here...a shark attack is perfectly legititimate television entertainment. i'll bet the show got a good rating and over here we let the market dictate...everything. are they showing a rerun.
dave. Rewarded 4
-
-
I realize this one is a little impenetrable Dave. What I'm trying to get across is that REAL footage of shark bite injuries looked amazingly like what the special effects people fed us in 'Jaws' and the like. I'd always thought they'd taken 'license' to make it more horrific than it actually is. They hadn't. It really looks like that.
Someone I know has just been admitted to a psychiatric ward. It's so like 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' it's unreal.
-
Adding your comment:
1 - 6 of 6
