Riding the Train with Bruno Ganz

You were never as vicious
riding the train with cobalt petals streaming from your temple
a regular fatalist swooning up against me
with your brackish breath stirring me up
bowling me over with your divinely lit eyes
up and down the corroded tracks of their dated city
gentle in your foreignness coping
disembarrassed extinct and exact in your authentic mode
smiling down from the stars
a dusty angel crushing down on my rib cage
popularizing the love of fear
through a thousand stages

you were never my hero for even a second
until you climbed back into my permanent dreaming
unshaven and nostalgic tasting of naphthalene
combing my hair with heavy germanic strokes
travelling one station at a time into some sort of morbid
onslaught of women in rippled blouses laughing
at the luxurious daffodils you arranged at my feet
once there you steam-rollered my heart and sucked
at the crimson fittings around it
gushing with piety you stormed into my private season
and cursed me with the kind of love that fuses to the bone
once.

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Polaroids of Tobe Hooper Once all the bruises were worn through and you slid into the beach chair the wind changed direction calmed your matted hair into one solid clump of disaster skin-fulls of the nastiness oozing from your smile guru-fish, spider monkey, loser all glowing full of widow's grief and passion masked with frenzy posing the pose a camera never spies incorrectly salt lick lens under your nostrils you are a beautiful pigeon mocking our tastelessly attired bones.

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Harry Dean Stanton at the El Rancho Motel
After Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas 1984

Remember when you, way down inside
changed your mind about the way you read the lightning
remember how you told me change was life in the pocket
and if I stayed still too long
eventually the thunder would strike all my rivers
and I would be left behind on a raft of dried poppies
remember why you pointed your barograph
to the eastern skies
predicting my downfall
on a mechanical night in February
when you swore I would lose momentum and derail
and they would find me frozen under a gravel pillow

remember when you found me wandering the desert
in shoes that had outgrown me
with curious voices pasted against my head
running towards the thick sun
remember how you found me through a thousand grains of sand
occupied with my own speechlessness
crimson hat bobbing against a windless sky
moving
moving because remember you told me
moving was remembrance moving itself moving
was because you told me remember
moving?

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Lili Taylor Stands Under a Lamppost
in Small-Town America
After Nancy Savoca's Dogfight 1991

Lili Taylor stands under a lamppost in small-town America
waves at the bus full of army boys with pale fingers
touches the back of her leg
counts her dog bites
on cool summer evenings like this she is it
what they've been dreaming of while polishing boots

Lili Taylor lifts her crinoline over her head
the bet is on
her dog bites are perfect
her face finds his
he pulls her close to him and begins the lie

Lili Taylor dances with her army boy
up close
she knows she is not it
he is dancing to a slightly different rhythm
for a slightly different girl waiting
at the edge of the war

Lili Taylor wins all bets
he falls to his knees years later
dreams of her often
runs his pale fingers up the back of his arm
feels for the teeth marks
counts.

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Angels
After Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire 1988

He is an American angel
on the other side of the ocean
on the other side of the wall
come to steal their wings

he flutters past abandoned fields
wet with rain
begins a fairy tale of life
where he is no longer an angel
where he stands above the city looking down
with eyes that have never closed without sleep

he is an American angel
come to steal their thunder
while they stroke each other's wings at the ending of the day
he is an American wandering their set
swaggering past the ruins of their dreams
he is Peter Falk dressed as Colombo
impersonating an angel
impersonating an American full of desire
to fly over their heavens with foreign wings.

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Moth Catcher
After Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd. 1950

What happens when they find me floating past the lilies
face down in her pool?
well that's where it begins
the story of me and Norma
somewhere between her stairway and the street
from the moment she stepped out of the light
and spiraled her way toward me
in a river of perfumed desire
a serpent of gargantuan proportions cluttering my vision
inviting me to lie at the bottom of the stairs
to watch her dance the dance of forgotten women

what happens when you fall for it?
when you find yourself in her arms
with the credits rolling
and you realize there is no moth catcher with his flood lights
waiting to catch your fall
there is no you and Norma at the bottom of the stairs
there is only a faint trace of a swan opening its wings

what happens is they find you on a bed of seaweed swooning
against her scent.

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The Journey
After Jane Campion's The Piano 1993

Midnight and long ships have brought her to him
journeying over the rivers of time
she arrives on deserted beaches until

what he hears are her fingers stroking the keys
then ribbons of unimaginable happiness
slip through his hands
falling at her feet music crashes into him
from every direction

midnight and the forest takes her away from him until
she arrives again days later
to lie with him under the heavy palms under his piano until
he understands the journey of her silence until
he speaks from a place of unimaginable rapture until
the long ships take them to the very bottom of the ocean
where the echo of his voice will fade from her lips.

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Hal Hartley on a Harley


I could have sworn I saw Hal Hartley on a Harley
going up and down Church St.
I could have sworn I saw Hal Hartley on a Harley
going up and down Church St.

I could have sworn he said he found the truth
the unbelievable truth in 11 days
on Long Island with a film crew shooting day and night
and the rain coming down in buckets
that he actually knew what it was all about
life, I mean
on a Harley
on Church St. Hal smiles
offers up some advice
says "don't even climb a tree at night"
and we all laugh like
we really know what he means
when we don't know what the hell he's talking about
but hey he's Hal Hartley
but hey he's Hal Hartley
and he sure knows how to point that camera our way.

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Three Losers in Louisiana
After Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law 1986

He can't even fry up an egg but he sure knows murder
rumour has it he killed a guy with an eight ball
threw it right at his head
and now he's locked up with two losers
with only a deck of cards between them
and big dreams of Walt Whitman

escape costs nothing
once their feet touch the earth it's simple
they move north out of the bayou
he recites Bob Frost and tells the losers
that America is for poets
and that his name is Roberto but they can call him Bob
he delivers them to a clearing where the road forks
"the world is a strange and beautiful place" he tells them
"wish you were here"
the losers turn their backs on him
move towards the dull sun and whisper "buzz off".

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The Whole Damn Story
After Fred Coe's A Thousand Clowns 1965

Nick goes by Dr. Morris Fishburne, Chevrolet
and Rudolfo
Nick is 12, lives with Murray on the east side
and has to choose between truth and faith
and finally a name to go by

Nick and Murray wander through abandoned chinese restaurants
collecting photographs of faded dynasties
and discarded bus tickets
on warm spring nights Murray tells Nick the story

the story of Nick and Murray and the whole damn thing
and what Nick just can't understand is why she left
why, if she roams the very same earth he does
can't he find her footsteps and follow them
to where he would find her and read to her
from day-old newspapers until they would fall to the ground
in hysterics

Nick sleeps on the fire-escape with a picture
of her face
and wakes to the sound of Murray stretching canvas
painting the entire story of Nick and Murray and the whole damn thing

Nick is 12 and crawls through Murray's imagination
looking for clues of their past and present
and shops around for language that will fill Murray with happiness
finds a single word
"absent".

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Hammett in Hollywood
After W. S. Van Dyke's The Thin Man 1934

Asta keeps Nora hopping
between martinis

after walking the pooch Nora reclines
in her satin dressing gown with that face
that keeps us all at the edge of our seats
waiting for the thin man to step out of his shadow
and tell us how we figure into it

between martinis he steps into the picture
unravels the mystery of America right up there on the screen
just as if it all came down to Hammett typing
what we were all feeling at that very instant.

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Tango
After Alfred Hitchcock's Rope 1948

The body can't come between them
what's done is done
and soon the whole gang will come through the door
fedoras afloat
pass the cheese and I know who done it

murder is a six letter word for fun
that's all
his heart has stopped because of them
because boys know how to use rope
to make their dreams come true
to make their eyes wild above his gasps
boys know what other boys feel
like a syringe climbing up the vein

the guests arrive in colour
the body knows its place
no one is invited to tango.

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Werner Has Gone Mad
After Les Blank's Burden of Dreams 1982

Les writes letters from the Amazon
he's waiting for coffee
Werner has gone mad
he's dragging ships across mountains
they compare tattoos

Werner writes letters to his parents
the jungle is in him
the heat like arrows in the flesh
is necessary

Les photographs the burden of Werner's dreams
while no letters arrive home
Werner tells us the devil is right here
speaking to us in jungle language

Werner photographs collective murder
crazed by the wrath of his imaginings he drops us
into a steamboat of catastrophe
spinning wildly downstream
and lets us into our own seasons of hell

Les and Werner have made the trip
they have documented the trance
the jungle is woven up inside them
they will carry it with them like an opera
on the very tip of their hearts.

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The French Love Buddy Love
After Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor 1963

Every Frenchman holds Buddy in his heart
next to Apollinaire and Tzara
because they know that Buddy started it all
the real surrealist revolution in France
between sets down at the night club
between playing teacher and running with the rat pack
Buddy is the cause of all their anxiety
the reason they all speak in such tiny whispers
and mime their way out of their collective guilt

the French love Buddy Love
because he comes to them in technicolour
his face beaming on the covers of trashy magazines
Buddy occupies a place in their conscience
where hollywood is king
they love Buddy despite themselves
while Paris burns they scramble to collect their ticket stubs
to catch the last re-run of Buddy's transformation
from surrealist heart throb to professor of angst

Buddy loves the French because they pay his bills
he doesn't give a damn who owns history
or hollywood or the cameras
he combs his hair straight up
three times a day
doesn't speak a word of foreign
and eats chinese take-out
Buddy is America's worst nightmare.

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A Procession of Travelers
After Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven 1978

During the days and nights of heaven
we ride the river looking for the light
in each other's eyes
arms extended we reach for reflections on the water
and find the faces of strangers that have crossed the stars before us

on land we travel slower
finding fewer reminders of ourselves
settling the west with dreams of locusts
and indigo sky

flames of wheat pierce our hearts
and open us up to the spirits
while we gather the dust and rain
a procession of travelers mimic the storm
skirts billow under the planets

a kind of copper moon falls our way.

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Hoagy Carmichael Steals the Show
After Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not 1944

Harry's fingers move into the shot
the credits roll
Bacall steps in with that voice
and we're on our way
watching them fall for each other right up there
in 1944 in black and white and Hoagy pounding the piano
it's like going down the road a hundred miles an hour
with the moon all lit up and the stars bending down on you
cooling the night
it's like the time you were nine and dreamed of dancing
on the edge of the earth with a bag full of crickets
it's like all the times you wanted to feel happy and actually did
like skating on a lake full of frozen faces looking up at you
a kind of calm filling you up inside
it's like day and night and all the in between
only this time Hoagy Carmichael steals the show.

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