This desire is absurd.
I have no hope of knowing you.
We happen to inhabit the same planet.
That is the extent of our commonality.
Hollywood peddles.
I promised myself I would look
but never buy. Yet I look down
and find my pockets empty,
my arms full of junk.
Tarnished movieland treasure,
moldering velvet, relics of art and magic
which, off-camera, become phony and flat
as an old Western set.
The sight of you paralyzes me.
My idle moments are filled like my walls
with your posters’ graven images.
I want screens filled with you
twelve feet high, seven stories high,
Omnimax-wrapped around me
surround sound pumping your voice
straight into my soul,
the way you enter me anyway,
inhabit me, eyes and ears assaulted
with all that is you.
The rain makes me think of you
But then so does the sun.
I am petrified with want.
You draw me back to someplace
I think I probably shouldn’t want to be.
And yet I do.
Suddenly, stalking you among the world’s cities
doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
I erect on-line shrines to you
I find myself itching
to hang around outside studio lots
to bribe the guards
to kill the president
to read Salinger.
Anything.
If it means you’d know my name.
I need that affirmation
like I need to watch your movies
ten times in a row
to scour the Internet, thirsty to know
if you are at all like I imagine.
This is the tunnel vision of love.
I think the world will open up
even as it contracts,
serpent-like.
And I am the rodent
caught in that digestive tract.
Don’t worry.
The golden calf is not
for slaughtering, so no
animals were harmed
in the production of this
emotion picture.
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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Great!
Its unfortunate how people seem to get swept up in the glitter and glam of Hollywood and those who live off it, though those same people have the tendency to make things that take us away from our problems for awhile, and if people are addicted to anything as a whole, its an addiction to dreaming. I really loved this, in fact it might be one of my favorites. Keep up the awesome work!
-RD -
Pie, the last stanza made me laugh. Lovely end.
I never really got obsessed over movie/music stars. But this paints the picture perfectly. Watching people go through the exercise of watching films again and again, cutting pictures of the star, hanging posters, googling all the picture and information they could get makes me scratch my head; your poem made the image a little endearing. More than anything, this reminds me of adolescent years, wherein the idea of being known by that star seems possible. I get the picture of teens saving up money to buy the latest magazine or get a concert ticket. The subject matter is quite refreshing. I haven't read a poem similar to this. The ending however made it for me. The use of the golden calf as the classic symbol for idolatry and the wit injected in the disclaimer was perfect.
Reading your poems has always been fun Pie...the subject matter varied and unexpected.
-iphios
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