Afternoon at the Movies
TAKE HEART
A bluejay is thicker-skinned and carries more weight than a heart:
let's stuff one in live - scrap what's there now
and stuff in a jay, feathers and all, still beating. Wanting
out as usual.IN PARIS
There's a bird so small and delicate when roasted
that the man dining alone in the four-star restaurant
places a large white napkin over his head
for the full effect - the tiny crunch like a single perfect thought.
Imagine a dining room filled with people in their white hoods,
blind to the waiters' smiles.IMPERIALIST DOG
We can still feel it past the feathers:
the tiny throbbing heart of the jay. A pea under the mattress.
The idea remains: replace it with a cockroach, its heart
hollowed out for a gnat, the gnat's speck of a heart being
the final Chinese box - the cliché of the final Chinese box
stuffed down its throat.SILK DRAWERS
Far off, out on the end of the gnat's tongue, we come to a decision:
we see green. A picnic on a suburban lawn.
Impeccable in white, Mind and Heart dine upon each other,
complementing each other's taste
and passing tidbits back and forth - small sacrifice
for what the Heart has in mind.