7/1/19

1.

I always pictured the next frame
before the light shone through it;
it was a thrill to know.

Comics on ruled paper
cover art and logos
I always saw the gutters before their panels.

I thought it'd serve me well,
take me somewhere nice.
the world celebrated people like me

I made sure to see the callback before the punchline
but the world was wising up.
Even then, I felt like time was short.

2.

the handful of people
that meant the world to me
they'd listen and nod

We presumed to be auteurs
patted one another's backs
amid winking jokes about fame and fortune

My once and future flame:
A siren, an omen,
an angel, a wildcat.

a fleeting flirtation
with things to come.
It wasn't time (I'd tell myself forever)


3.

A well-disguised blessing,
run by the prototypically MAGA,
who even carried that channel?

Kindred spirits
surrounded by cartoon characters
Choking on anxiety

A connection I wouldn't recognize until later
a knowing laugh
Understanding

for a brief moment
'Staff Writer';
but we were all dropped before Christmas.

4.

A tower of babel
made of bodies
in love with a genre

labored notes and outlines
joints and beers and cigarettes
a perverse pervasive hope

of course we were proud of it
probably too proud
and I was probably too scared

years and years
the scaffolding begins to fall away
schematics become artifacts

a rotating cast
but a surprise reveal
casts the whole thing in a new light.

Our hearts burned again
for the first time in ages
My once and future flame.

5.

I snap back to my waking life
refreshing an inbox
eyes on the middle distance

body is worn down
labored sighs are frequent
Time has long since elapsed

A doodle on my desk:
a smug moose, a title treatment
some scattered notes and a heart

'The world has moved on'
and that one isn't even mine
but it's true, isn't it?

I am learning to stop projecting
to accept the world, as it is
but we must dare to hope

a blinding white nothing
a single static frame
all that's still in focus is my Once and Future Flame.