Kevin Murray
First Movie
Staring up at the great screen’s parting -
‘Top Hat’ with Rogers and Astaire; music, I. Berlin -
small, pale, anxious, and six,
inhaling the dark of the matinee flicks.
Figures held in a beam of light just like the Holy Ghost,
she lives in a ballgown, he in a boiled shirt,
speaking brightly like a stick along an iron fence
- I lose the story as the secrets thicken -
not serious people I think but exalted by desire
they transcend their salon world into elastic dance
gliding like nuns and singing sweet riddles -
‘Isn’t it a lovely day to be caught in the rain’.
Lifted by their lovely coupling I see proved
the chance of joy in growing up. My allegiance moved
from the man with the thorns and the cruel nails
to the pale one in top hat, white tie, and tails.
Page(s) 62
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