Screen Dump 574

You collect blow-ins from magazines for collages

of skateboarders shredding abandoned screenplays . . .

Curators off-camera interview orphans

in Adirondack chairs . . . connecting the dots

to the nonsensical as if in response to What did you expect? . . .

But it's all there . . . well, sort of . . .

Your fascination with figuration

your writing between the lines

walking the dunes to the lighthouse

during low tide's non-credit course

which you audited as if the brittle microfiche

would point a finger at incompleters

who partied with odysseyites

before disappearing in a late-model non-sequitur . . .

Then it was back to the blue screen

with Miles playing Bill Evans's Blue In Green

making it a loss for words . . .

Besides, this time next year will be the same time this year . . .

You can't not imagine how . . . how the heavens opened

and post-impressionists weighed in

with a muted palette 

while a storm waited at the blue in green light

prepping us for tomorrow's time trial . . .

David Benoliel

Screen Dump 573

After that there was little left to say

especially with the rain . . . which fell

past the place settings . . .

Instead of bailing, you disappeared

into the anomalies of time

but now you're back in the middle of an aria . . .

Quite providential, yes? . . .

There have been days of high drama

with few breaks in the dialogue

which made its way along some coastal route

pinned with tourist traps . . .

The filming continues . . .

especially the avatars of time and place

as if in the heart of darkness someone said

Thanks for the memories . . .

You had asked for the full catastrophe

and were taken aback by the preponderance

of rehearsals . . . all for the better one would hope . . .

David Benoliel

Screen Dump 572

The discrepancy rang in for the mandatory eight

while you . . . and your shopping cart . . . continued to check

for underlines which would have fit in very nicely . . .

It's really too early to say

but I would urge you to go ahead

before the principals leave the stage for the coda . . .

Have you encouraged others? . . .

Has the segue arrived? . . .

It would indeed be a coup if . . . and only then I might add . . .

So . . . the apps did the trick, yes? . . .

Were the blue books collected mid stream? . . .

Someone came forward gushing appreciation

which is always a hat trick

conjecturing this and that as if tomorrow was yesterday . . .

Peter Lindbergh

Screen Dump 571

It's not about getting it all down

again feeding your obsession 

a mirroring of psyches

(whatever that means) . . .

Now is not as good a time as any . . .

Your aim is off . . .

The rain . . . a narrow gauge

through backstories

in back alleys all but spent . . .

Odysseyites stocking up on staples

for wintering the summer

at the shore . . . their notebooks

street smart and ready for

close encounters with figments

of  consciousness

hurled out of second floor windows . . .

Insist on paper and pencil

for up close and personals . . .

Maciej Boryna

Intermission Piano

Your cousins are in the water.

But you're not.

You're playing intermission piano

on this early July morning

that's just beginning to heat up:

the sand just starting to sting

the voices of your cousins

just starting to get louder.

So you're playing intermission piano

on this early July morning

because sometimes the water is just too cold

sometimes your cousins play just a little too rough.

Intermission piano.

It's kinda scary.

Walking the edge without a musical score

going on what Frank O'Hara called nerve

when he talked about being chased

by someone with a knife.

Intermission piano.

On this early July morning.

So it's good that grandma's here

on the beach

in her housedress

with her beach chair.

And it's good that she's invited you

to sit on her lap for a while

watch your cousins in the water

and slowly wade into the day.

Screen Dump 570

Buying time to rethink the restoration . . .

When last was just before

and you laid out specs for go-betweens

knowing the endpoint would fade . . .

Now you can . . .

I had hoped to make it back in time . . .

The dream has too many doors

of different colors

and you keep ringing the bell

channeling odysseyites

populating the wakes of dead friends

who remain connected . . .

I want to transcribe your genes

but you skip beats

leaving several in an empty parking lot . . .

The last time was the last time . . .

although with the so-called rebirth

it seems as if we will be able to . . .

I hope so . . . I really do . . .

The printer's cartridge is empty

and the kiosk on the corner is a hog barn . . .

You have been put on hold . . .

Nicholas Cage in Pig (2021)