Vertigo

There were too many pieces to the puzzle,
too many keen faults in the symmetry.
She locked eyes
with the darkened window
of the building across the street,
and when vertigo took the elevator
down to meet her
where she was standing,
shaky and unsure,
she braced herself
for the kind of falling
that no one ever saw.

#21 from Untitled Film Poems
Image by Cindy Sherman

Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Framework

A well-ordered day,
relative to the framing,
which living betrayed.

#20 from Untitled Film Poems
Image by Cindy Sherman
Posted in Artwork, Books, Cinema, photography | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Runes

Fall in the city.
A building offers
the glyphic runes
of a tectonic language
in relief
that goes unnoticed
by the woman
who has just seen her lover
listening to another woman
closely.

#19 from Untitled Film Poems
Image by Cindy Sherman

Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Double

There was a staggered repeatability
to her days
which she counted upon
for a semblance of security
and rightness,
so you can imagine
her surprise when she looked across
the street and saw a woman
identical to her, same head scarf,
same handbag, same heels,
walking backwards
with an assurance
assigned to normalcy.

#18 from Untitled Film Poems

Image by Cindy Sherman

Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

American Gothic

A tableaux of modern gothic,
modeling the claims of dying light–
To go gently, or to rage
within a facade of ice?

#17 from Untitled Film Poems
Image by Cindy Sherman
Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Singe

In a sense,
you could call it
a stay of execution,
but that would be waxing operatic
just to make the whole thing
worth remembering.
Still, he had
groveled before your feet,
while clutching at your shadow’s hem,
begging for a temporary pardon
or reprieve,
those were his exact words,
as your silence, like sullen ash,
left him singed
in the face of metaphor.

#16 from Untitled Film Poems
Image by Cindy Sherman
Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Crossbearing

She, the heroine,
in the still of her own life–
Christ, how far to go?

#15 from Untitled Film Poems
Image by Cindy Sherman

Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fable

The woman, fronting a fable, wondered–
Am I the cause, or the effect?
No answer forthcoming, she considered splitting,
before she turned her back on herself
and left.

#14 from Untitled Film Poems
Image By Cindy Sherman
Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Booksmart

Perhaps he was right,

and God was a peeping Tom—

Fiction turned her on.

#13 from Untitled Film Poems

Image by Cindy Sherman

Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Baggage Claim

Was it fate, a fire sale,
history?
The longest-running soap serial
was drawing to a close,
if only the damned latch
hadn’t been broken,
if only escape plans
could be executed
without the claim
of baggage.

#12 from Untitled Film Poems
Image by Cindy Sherman
Posted in Artwork, Cinema, photography, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment