Screen Dump 133

If you didn't have so many overdue library books on your plate . . .
you'd be better able to face the day . . .
I have a solution! . . .
Introspection is offering buybacks . . .
You've heard, right? . . .
If you wait it out . . . you'll be able to walk in . . . head held high . . .
It's not just architectural mockups, either . . .
You feel uncomfortable . . . perfectly understandable . . .
If I had to wear that Halloween costume, I'd deep-six my journal entries . . .
Who's to know, anyway? . . .
Besides, who cares? . . .
We all have skeletons . . . in our bathtubs . . .
Remember that scene in Psycho, with Anthony Perkins eating a sandwich? . . .
And Hitch outside . . . in profile . . . having a smoke? . . .

Psycho (1960)

Screen Dump 132

Position the player . . . and begin jealousy . . .
Move to the other side of the room . . .
Position yourself . . .
You will be wordless . . .
Watching him/her . . . from the other side of the room . . .
Angle yourself to see yourself in the mirror . . .
Begin doing whatever you have to do . . .
Which of the seven levels? . . .
Do not break your concentration . . .
Watching him/her with him/her . . .
The momentary loss . . .
Leaving . . . with an article of his/her clothing . . .

Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Screen Dump 131

Losing track of fiendish departures . . .
You dole out emoticons . . . to the freshly laundered . . .
sampling the sake and sushi . . .
the dining room reeking restoration hardware . . .
You are yellow carded . . .
Fast forward the backups . . .
I want to review the anonymous donors . . .
In black and white . . . it's less distracting . . .
I was foolish to argue the point . . .
Threatening true happiness with a new coat of paint . . .
Some periwinkle mixed in to soften the tone . . .
Easing the players into position . . .
Feeding them arugula . . . and lines . . .
Then moving into the final scene . . .
The one that shatters the glass ceiling . . .

David Benoliel

Screen Dump 130

You learn dance steps . . . and are told you are good . . .
Watching the stillness with the intensity of being out of step . . .
Zeno's arrow never arriving at its target . . .
Your life as instances of stillness . . .
You cannot delete an instant . . .
Ashbery says time is not linear but concentric . . .
The players . . . in sepia . . . viewed as concentric circles . . .
Some take you to ice cream parlors . . . treat you to sundaes . . .
Others squeeze you into costumes . . .
Still others stare blankly . . . shifting in your words . . .
Always on the brink . . . of involvement . . .
Testing the questions . . .
Applying preservative . . . pre-Facebook albums . . .
You worry the fine print . . . the writing on the wall . . .
but go along for the ride . . . for years . . .
Then the hiatus . . .
The traffic signal malfunctioning . . .
You . . . speeding through the intersection . . .

Sarah Moon

Screen Dump 129

Last night, while I lay thinking here
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear. . . .
          - Shel Silverstein, Whatif

You do too! . . . the words - with hair toss - starboard . . .
The player gearing up for the comeback . . .
Start the countdown . . .
Handing in a stack of keypunched Hollerith cards . . .
Waiting for the printout . . .
Plotting the Cartesian coordinates of sexual odysseys? . . .
A scatterplot of encounters? . . .
Developing a mathematical model to fit the data? . . .
y axis = attraction . . . x axis = enjoyment . . .
Parsing enjoyment we find . . . crouching in the corner . . .
excitement and intensity . . .
The higher the attraction the greater the enjoyment . . .
One would think, yes? . . .
Wait! . . . What if they're shooting blanks? . . .
Intervening variable? . . .
Later, you know, the on the shoulders of giants kind of thing . . .
The regression line of best fit . . .
For the best fit . . .
So size matters, yes? . . .
You're kidding, right? . . .
OK, let's test it . . .
But correlation isn't causation! . . .
Please find a tree for me to hide behind . . .
I need a reason for my transgressions! . . .
Well, maybe I don't! . . .
The lost wax process . . . can we use that? . . .
You know . . . fitting the mold . . . so to speak . . .
Sucking them in . . . keeping them guessing . .
What's going to happen? . . . Will I score? . . .
Who's in charge here, anyway? . . .
I am . . . You know . . . like René:
I think (I am in charge) . . . therefore I am (in charge)! . . .

Screen Dump 128

You're having trouble deciphering your scribbles . . .
(this has been happening a lot lately) . . .
and you're being creeped-out by this Billy Joel lookalike . . .
stalking the perimeter of your dreamscape . . .
You're thinking about taking a ballet class . . .
eye on the clock . . .
but worry HIRD (Hip Internal Rotation Deficit) . . .
It's one of those things . . .
like losing your grip . . .
the world becoming dense prose . .
the edges of conversations blurring . . .
the belated departures . . .
the nonexistent always butting in . . .
friendships losing their luster through overhandling . . .
So what about the ceaseless passage of time? . . .
Any consolation there? . . .
Just asking . . .
Were you in the ark with the rest of the lottery winners? . . .
The nuts-and-bolts of walking around the block . . .
Taking in the flowers and condiments . . .
the rhythms of generations . . .
and the secondary nature of wrenching yourself from unwanted others? . . .

NYC Ballet's Wendy Whelan

Screen Dump 127

The good-enoughs were good enough . . . buffed biceps and thighs . . .
Lisped words . . . a turn-on . . .
Playing catch-up to your long-stemmed black lycras . . .
scissoring the elliptical . . .
May I quote your treadmill? . . .
Eyes lock on a different shore . . .
A shore littered with brittle backyards . . .
and Facebook friends . . .
unlined . . . untouched . . . unknowing . . .
Escape routes pumped and GPS'd . . .
A leaf-peeper (by happenstance) . . .
always in the director's chair . . . the driver's seat . . .
the O Captain! My Captain! . . . of the Remote . . .
guided by lyrical insertion . . . narrative jostling . . .
and Mr. Jack Daniel's . . .
high-brow . . . low-brow . . . uni-brow . . .
The emptiness . . . filled with Red Bull . . . and alien others . . .

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Screen Dump 126

You floss judiciously . . . worry unwritten reams . . .
his/her intentions . . .
bulky sarchophagi of approach-avoidance . . .
unresolved past (im)perfect hookups . . . disconnects . . .
the neon stupidity of texts . . .
and the whole Tire Warehouse thing . . .
Where the fuck is UNSEND? . . .
Your pontoon takes on water . . .
There will never be a better time . . .
OCD muscling in:
First you say you do and then you don't . . .
Voices fade . . .
And now this residual avatar . . .
standing next to you in the checkout line . . .
hitting on you . . .
It's a supermarket moment . . . a hit-and-run supermarket moment . . .

Aneta Ivanova

Screen Dump 125

You have mastered the pronunciation of oui . . .
and use it with your shell game . . .
to entice those who have declined residential treatment . . .
The eroticism of suppressed meaning is alive and well . . .
and has mapped your promiscuous bandwidth . . .
on vacation (again) at the shore . . .
You need more . . .
An enigma that will soon fall out of fashion . . .
releasing last-minute tweaks . . . complete with stilettos . . .
An easy mark . . . is headed your way . . .
Of course, the shell game . . .

Herb Ritts

Screen Dump 124

And what excuse might that be? . . .
Lollygagging about . . . tardiness as a come-on . . .
then truth or dare by the pumps . . . on camera . . .
I can only say so much . . .
You have pushed the envelope . . . ooh la la . . .
And now more is a sepia print . . .
with players arranged in quilted silence . . .
I know you love this kind of thing . . .
Especially when this kind of thing involves costumes . . .
and missing pieces . . .
and the chance to play another's role . . .

Gabriele Rigon

Screen Dump 123

The wind no longer billowed in her garments.
          - Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

The attraction replaced by ennui . . .
This of course Proust's narrator . . .
Begin your analysis of Albertine with possession equals erasure . . .
Follow it through flashbacks to a short story . . .
then to yesterday . . .
Pout eclipsed by exoticism . . .
The scene opens with the fourth of seven levels . . .
At a table . . . in a restaurant . . .
I'm all ears! . . .
I retreat to the script . . . but the evidence is foreplay . . .
Stage left with shadows of your former self . . .
in the passing lane on the Bayonne Bridge . . .
along one-way streets . . . with no looking back . . .
Is the interest more than casual? . . .
This is puppetry . . . of the highest order, yes? . . .
Again, the ceiling tiles . . .
But I always made sure I'd enjoy it! . . .
You have come this far? . . .
We can crack this case . . . with further therapy . . .
Crack this case? . . .
Did I say that? . . .
I will consult with the flowers in the vase . . .
Oh, yeah! . . .
Your insistence . . . captivating . . .
Again you will be paid for crossing the line . . .
But first the risotto . . .
on the plate . . . in the restaurant . . .
in the Styrofoam takeaway box . . .
Searching for lost what? . . .
How would you even know? . . .
Your marmishness cover held . . . despite the spandex . . .
at the throwback party of the first part . . .
Entering a makeshift room . . . garments billowing . . .
Bangles (with mantra) leading the way . . . for your erotic other . . .

Screen Dump 122

Who are we, if not . . . an inventory of objects.
          - Italo Calvino

The high rent aisles in the supermarket . . . abuzz with coupons . . .
and other short-term investment loopholes . . .
The he saids and the she saids streaming along Netflix . . .
going at it tooth and nail . . .
with nary a shopping cart between them . . .
comparing metrics . . .
for love and hate . . . love and sex . . . sex and hate . . .
May I say you look absolutely redemptive in that getup . . .
I’ll bet it cost an arm and a leg . . .
You have lubricated the valve trombone's splutterings . . .
and examined - up close and personal - the cash-flow(charts) . . .
You are well on your way to Utopia . . .
despite your fascination with cheat sheets . . . and washed-up unicorns . . .
Of course, there's just so much you can absorb . . .
as the drama continues to unfold . . .
in the small upstate New York hamlet of your choice . . .
So too you . . .

David Leslie Anthony

Screen Dump 121

You played dress-up with expensive lipstick at the Acropolis . . .
Pocketing stones from here and there . . .
Climbing the steep stairs to the upper room . . .
where they had reputedly gathered . . .
Thirteen portraits of doormats . . .
Is it a doormat or a painting of a doormat? . . .
You grew tired of playing a doormat . . .
And smeared lipstick - à la Heath Ledger - to make yourself unfathomable . . .
From moment to moment . . . to evidentiary moment . . .
The steep stairs to the next of seven levels . . .
Preparing for the audition . . . assuming a wilted position . . .
Your livingness eclipsing the precariousness of happiness . . .
I needed to go to CVS to pick up a prescription . . .
The parking lot at the Acropolis was full . . . I was turned away . . .
The nightmare gaining momentum . . .
Stopped and strip searched for stones . . . at McDonald's . . .
Smearing lipstick on Ronald's autographed portrait . . .
I'm not the only one here not making any sense . . .
You too have seen it in the cards she laid out . . .
with the precision of a diamond cutter . . .

Paolo Roversi

Screen Dump 120

The street of mannequins . . . awaits your induction . . .
a Chaos Theory of ho-hums . . .
false starts . . . blind alleys . . .
Players . . . within players . . . within players . . .
have paid their dues . . .
for a peek . . . at you . . . Cinderella of the New . . .
years of abstinence . . . facials . . .
the eroticism of obscure symmetry . . .
Your glass slipper . . . on camera . . . bagged as evidence . . .

Paolo Roversi