Strip by Jessica Abughattas

Author:Jessica Abughattas [Abughattas, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781610757300
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press

Movie Man

1.

We didn’t choose oblivion but it was the only safe place.

I know I’m free but forgetful.

Borderlines and narcissists attract each other

like borderlines and narcissists.

You have a perfect image in your head

and I have to keep guessing,

keep moving through the blocking

until I get it right.

Again and again, my provocations keep your eyes on me.

I want to do it my way,

make you change your mind.

You’re in charge, but you can’t play without me.

I’m in charge, I want to give you what you want.

To make you love me.

2.

He’s filming a movie in a dive bar at dawn,

so I’m writing poems in a dive bar at dawn.

A crew of fifty people chasing out

the boredom of the mundane,

trying to make everything look mundane.

Does the sensual have any sense at this hour?

You don’t want to see these men when the money runs out.

3.

I know what I’m supposed to do, but I’d be disrupting

the narrative of my life to do things right the first time around.

4.

She’s my friend. She’s playing a role.

The villain’s girlfriend, only safe in the arms

of drug dealers, fashion photographers, and movie men.

Only safe in arms.

We’re addicted to the possibility of being loved.

A flick of the wrist, a flick off a cliff.

A lighter version of whatever evil is.

Evil on a diet doesn’t eat in front of company.

A bird in a cave or only a picture of a bird in a cave.

A closed aperture.

Compulsive performance of beauty is

our perfect image of justice.

5.

I want to kiss the construction boy smiling at me

in 101 traffic.

6.

The tall one, as I understand it, is famous.

7.

After a year I still think you’re coming up

to hug me from behind at a crowded Sunset bar.

To spend your life waiting is to spend it disappointed.

8.

When the money runs out, it’s just me and the light.

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