Screen Dump 191

That you could have read the script . . .
without the interruptions . . . the ooh la la's . . .
without the strip malls and their queues . . .
without those who - oh no! -
fell down the rabbit hole . . .
SoundCloud echoing their anthem . . .
The morning after . . . is also the morning before . . .
Where would you be . . .
if you had been able to read . . .
your words before you wrote them? . . .
before you were pressed into another run-through? . . .
Imagine the excitement in the first page . . .
the principals lining up . . . behind the curtain . . .
your words rising from their moorings . . .

Olivia Frolich

Screen Dump 190

Encumbered by the finish fetish
you reach for your jawboned Field Guide to Getting Lost . . .
and welcome the prophet into the room . . .
An opportune Q&A
with plenty of white space to stretch out in . . .
It's good to ignore the caveat . . . before silence grabs the mic
and launches into one-liners
so flat they get lost in the crowd . . . immediately . . .

Sarah Moon

Screen Dump 189

Mass is a numerical measure of inertia.
          - Sarah Gerard, Binary Star

We all have indentations . . . you're no different . . .
We all worry critical mass . . .
the nominal fees . . .
the exhortations . . .
slouching towards somewhere . . . Neverland perhaps? . . .
The other day for example for whatever reason . . .
I experienced a momentary lapse . . .
numbers tumbling into orbit . . .
a metronome insinuating itself into a few measures . . .
the cellist having forgotten her bow . . .
What is there to say? . . .
You place your chips in the eclipse . . .
You snowshoe into white silence . . .
Channeling Emily and random acts of pulchritude . . .
lowering her basket of cookies to neighborhood urchins . . .
Your puzzle rearranges itself . . .
with or without your OK . . .
Acceleration always bests gravity . . .
The table . . . like your trailer . . . is double-wide . . .
The fellowship . . . is still yesterday . . .
Something new . . . something unheard of . . .
from your late middle ages . . . would be nice . . .

Wendy Bevan

Screen Dump 188

There are lightning bolts in your cereal bowl . . .
You have become true north . . . again . . .
Gerrymandering the neighborhood . . . in provocative teamwear . . .
Usernames on the back in iridescent blue . . .

Earwormed since Thursday . . .
How long, O Catiline, will you tax our endurance? . . .
How long will that madness of yours escape us? . . .
To what ends will your unruly boldness hurl itself at us? . . .

The bullet-holed replica of something really important . . .
Grapefruits . . . for better or worse . . .
Irrespective of your height, you carry it well . . .
Institutionalization will squeeze into your mastery . . .

What is requisite, here, anyway? . . .
Roll back the years? . . . I don't think so . . .
Yellowing with age, I couldn't help but think of the foghorn . . .
in that little bistro on the corner of homeplate . . .

Remembering the biscuits we threw at our hunger . . .
and how after the entrée, you insisted on itemizing your deductions . . .
before it was too late . . .
Frankly, my dear . . .

Tiiu Kuik

Screen Dump 187

You . . . as red carpet junkie . . . aliases stuffed in pockets . . .
Names dropping from the ceiling . . . Any resemblance . . .
to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental . . .
You insist on farmhouses . . . and aqueducts . . .
and emails routed to an unmonitored inbox . . .
Fine with me . . .
A quick pick-me-up . . . a probiotic . . . might do . . .
The deductible, however, is still there . . .
staring you down . . . Not that easy to lose, yes? . . .
You came . . . you saw . . . you came again! . . .
Reveling in the lips of the neighborhood . . .
Stepping into the morning after . . .
trailing a cast of identity thieves . . . with false lanyards . . .
milling around the fax . . . after the awards . . .
Too much fidgeting . . . and you know what that means . . .
Full disclosure yields facial tics . . .
which more often than not are dead giveaways . . .
I'd rather not go there today . . . or any day . . . for that matter . . .

Sarah Moon

Screen Dump 186

It all seems derivative . . . every last element . . .
Theater-of-the-absurd derivative . . .
Drama of exposure derivative . . .
Standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants derivative . . .
Not all bad, yes? . . .
A matter-of-factness . . . a cultural moment . . .
in which self-display . . .
fronts for fear of self-disclosure . . .
or revelation . . .
Like you've gotta watch everything you say . . .
and even then . . . you're sure to get nailed . . .
The buzz in condiment aisles . . .
Your head stuck in a graphic comic . . .
featuring your avatar . . . gussied-up no less . . .
Can you imagine the itchiness . . .
as you crumple the note . . .
tossed into your car window . . .
while you waited at the crosstalk? . . .
What did it say? . . .
And now you're back in your room . . .
blanketed up to your eyeballs . . .
waiting for your surrogate someone . . .
to deliver hot chocolate . . .
Using the app Cyrano to text someone by someone else . . .

Lydia Roberts

Screen Dump 185

There are only so many ways one can connect . . .
So many ways to document the emotional upheavals of passing . . .
You'd think the alternative would abide . . .
But then you check their footwear . . . and you know . . .
Searching for the perfect ramen can be like that . . .
You know enough . . . after a while . . . to drop it . . .
Drop it onto the collection plate . . .
If only parenthood could be planned with as much finesse . . .
The effort to ward off the delusional . . . in a word, Triumphant! . . .
It would seem only logical, yes? . . .
I mean . . . the multifaceted . . . and all that . . .
By the time you get to Phoenix . . .
The phoenix will have risen . . . above the quay . . . and steel mills . . .
leaving you holding a charred, autographed copy . . .
of the program for the current year . . .

Lydia Roberts

Screen Dump 184

You wore matching thunderstorms to your latest audition . . .
and delivered lines from Machiavelli . . .

Sorry for what you consider discourtesy . . .
I tried to keep everyone informed . . .
It was my idea last year . . .
So I figured I would take responsibility for doing it this year . . .

And so . . .

Moviegoers will again be fed reruns . . . and remain confused . . .
between mouthfuls of buttery popcorn . . .

Retreating with your boxed set of heirloom purple amulets . . .
You're good to go . . .
Rewinding the misreading . . .
Its pulsations - 12-a-minute - match your breathing . . .

Duct tape adorns the wobbly diorama . . .
Carried aloft by a bevy of bees . . .
The flight plan . . . mimicking Daedalus's . . .
seduces Icarus to rise . . .

Later . . .

Mid-afternoon . . . snowshoeing the whiteness . . .
There will be no pussyfooting . . .
or double-entendres . . . however enviable . . .
Your sincerity . . . the space between parentheses . . .

Did I, like you, miss something? . . . Yes, Virginia, . . .
the new is too new . . . for some . . .
High-fiving Major Bowes and Ted Mack . . .
Have you taken your vitamin C? . . . and your selfie? . . .

David Benoliel

Screen Dump 183

. . . the absolute inanity of calling anything a fictional essay.
          - Anne Carson

You talk at length with Keats . . .
You ask about his words . . . which you want to believe . . .
were written in rooms with high ceilings . . .
You ask him to look at what you're working on . . .
He says he will . . . but then runs out of time . . .
There is no way back . . .
You worry the final exam . . .
Later you are able to define infidelity to your satisfaction . . .
though it isn't . . .
Strange how quickly the principled departs . . .
and leaves you in the middle of a busy intersection . . .
sans clothes . . .
Have you forgotten to call the plumber about the leaky faucet? . . .
I thought so . . .
The voice of God sounds human, yes? . . .
It's nothing . . . just the reluctance to admit the fool . . .
And your obsessions? . . . Are they reality? . . .
Shouldn't they be? . . .
If the problem is systemic . . .
Yes! Yes! I know . . .
But then when was the line actually crossed? . . .
You mean crossed so that we both knew? . . .
Your words float downstream . . . farther and farther . . .

Sarah Moon

Woman XLVI

instead of sleep
I scan images of her
costumed
dancing
my finger blue
from swiping the screen

Katerina Plotnikova

Screen Dump 182

I can’t watch the sea for a long time or what’s happening on land doesn’t interest me anymore.
          - Monica Vitti

Forget as well the alchemy of your zipcode . . .
A good idea . . . but not scalable . . . by any stretch . . .
Besides, there's nothing there . . .
nothing more than the placement of two objects . . .
next to one another . . .
filling pages (?) with stars . . . underlines . . . dog-ears . . .
The talk . . . outside yourself . . . is good . . .
Stepping over the rambunctiousness of words . . .
Releasing the binders . . . before it's too late . . .
Before the chopping block . . .
Before the cue . . . for the final scene . . .
These borderline personality mockups . . . have taken their toll . . .
Despite all, they'll do what they damn well please . . .
dining with Nero . . . so to speak . . .
in his rotating banquet room . . .
Pandemonium? . . . You bet! . . .
You've seen this coming, yes? . . .
in the moments before you left . . . hands full of condiments . . .
and compliments . . . trashed . . .

Screen Dump 181

Opulence? . . . Forget it . . . that was yesterday . . .
or the day before . . .
Today . . . we're all about collaboration . . .
How not to drop the ball . . . if it's ever handed to you . . .
And of course the enigma of pupillary response to collaboration . . .
Channeling the undiscovered beauty of pupillary response . . .
When necessary . . .
OK, let's play this: you're at the gym . . . on the elliptical . . .
The trainer-in-training is circling the room . . .
You worry exposure . . .
But intrigued by the idea of collaboration . . .
How much to pump? . . .
What angle is best for maximum burn? . . .
Open your McGuffey to page 7 The Maniac . . .
You mean like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance? . . .
No! No! No! . . . Not that!
Our bodies intersect at the cicumcenter of the triangle . . .
whether we like it or not . . .
Back to back, belly to belly, I don't give a damn, I done dead already . . .
But let's not go there just yet . . .
Today, it's collaboration, remember? . . . c-o-l-l-a-b-o-r-a-tion . . .
Someone requested input, yes? . . . Make it new, yes? . . .
This is the scary part . . .
Like Bela descending the staircase, saying . . .
Listen to them . . . Children of the night . . . What music they make . . .
And Renfield . . . sated on flies . . . ever the realtor . . .
Focus on the feet . . . as if you were back in your basement studio . . .
Cranking out canvas after canvas . . .
Which, by the way, I really liked . . .
Decades pass . . . bridges are burned . . .
Dylan thanks many . . . and spears the critics . . . at MusiCares . . .

Come gather 'round friends
And I'll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran empty
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty.*

Suspend disbelief . . . take something for your Shock of the New . . .
A magnificent series and book by Robert Hughes . . .
which incidentally I picked up for a song . . . in a minimart . . .
where the Marx Brothers featured . . .
and many of us boarded the ship of shtick . . . some never to return . . .
You, however, lived as you always did . . .
Rewriting scripts to fill the bill . . .
Happenstance intervened . . . and led you away . . . or astray . . .
Following nature's headlights . . . Not a bad thing, yes? . . .

*Bob Dylan, North Country Blues

Jennifer Beals  in Flashdance

Screen Dump 180

Apparently someone else made it all the way through . . .
and tried on the vernacular . . .
You've seen these parlor tricks before . . .
We all have . . . last year . . . in fact . . .
So let's do them again . . . and get really ho-hummed . . .
Always good to go to the white board, yes? . . .
Re-up (as they say) . . . and get pumped . . .
You're only as good as? . . . Really? . . .
Is that it? . . . Well . . . I'm OK . . . if you're OK . . .
Even if you're not OK . . . OK? . . .
Watch out for sedentary recluses crossing against the light . . .
Make it happen . . . and look what happened . . .
Approximations of the examined life . . .
but with a generous retirement package . . .
drop-kicked from the 10th yard line . . .
And please don't forget to enter the drawing . . .
for Opera Maven of the Year . . .
Streamed . . . every hour on the half . . .

Sarah Moon

Screen Dump 179

Parking a silver Bentley Mulsanne in your back pocket . . .
with miles to go before you sleep . . .
the sleep of innocents . . .
picking through a bin at the corner iCandy store . . .
your finger in the pages of Murakami's Strange Library . . .
even more hushed than usual . . .
You have videotaped hours of makeovers . . .
and found yourself nights in the editing room . . .
with frosting on your doctored nose . . .
pockets bulging with parking tickets . . .
posing as Lottery tickets . . .
By the way, your iPhone called in sick . . .
The times? . . . They are indeed a-changing . . .
It's not so much do this . . . do that . . .
It's something else . . .
A new do, perhaps . . .
A reworked scene . . .
Whatever it is . . . will be massaged . . .
like the donor's heart . . .
to answer the questions that have been airdropped . . .
and to be corrected analyzed blue-penciled . . .
and returned . . . for revision . . . later . . . in the month . . .

Wendy Bevan

Screen Dump 178

If there was no term for something, it might be thought that the
commodity is of small importance.
          - Donald Richie, A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics

Pocketing onomatopoeias . . . or onomatopoeiae (either) . . .
The line from here to there . . . from me to you . . .
With you leaning out . . . bookmakers - especially - leaning in . . .
Celebrating life's fine-tooth combs . . .
A time and a place for that too . . .
What if you were called to provide expert testimony . . .
on this or that? . . .
Could you . . . at a moment's notice . . . pick up where you left off? . . .
And now . . . the day done . . . Can you imagine? . . .

Olivia Frolich

Screen Dump 177

Intrigued by the fetishism of bending the air . . .
Emigrants from the edgelands . . .
carefully toe the deep end of the pool (hall) . . .
A mathematical reluctance . . .
a devil-may-care attitude . . .
now that pretty much anything can be undone . . .
The unofficial countryside . . .
of patterns . . . and proofs . . . and gaps . . .
The lost encores swelling the scene . . .
populated with players on the edge of your memory . . .
Your finger on undo . . . just in case . . .

Wendy Bevan