JUST AS LONG AS YOU’RE SATISFIED! Sign right on the dotted line; evolution guaranteed! IT’S A PERFECT MURDER: stripped of all originality and wrapped in a tiny, neat box; a dozen HITCHCOCK BLONDES and all of them trailing after her; all of them falling short. PALE IMITATIONS NEXT TO THE ORIGINAL! Never quite able to capture what once was, and would never be again. WHAT A WASTE! Talent all locked up in a gilded cage; trading in Oscar statues for crowns and titles. The camera pans; lazily roving across a manufactured set; a false sense of life and VIBRANCY painting in the twilight. Right down from her cloud on 63rd street: too perfect, always perfect; a Teflon and silicone masterpiece that had been immortalised in film and print. Say, what have I got that you don’t? MASS APPEAL. The Master of Suspense dictates and the studio follows suit: no more burnt offerings, no more wasting resources! ALL I ASK OF YOU IS FOR NINETY OR SO MINUTES OF YOUR TIME: get invested. AMERICA’S PRINCESS smiles and it’s almost SERENE: a graceful movement that tugs on her skin sluggishly, sliding over all those mechanics and wires to show something not quite human, someone not quite there. FROM THE SILVER SCREEN TO THE SILVER OF A NATION: funny how life really was like the movies.
“Oh, don’t you know? Miss Kelly didn’t have much of a voice. One musical in a short filmography, and the only time she sang in it was a duet. Odd, isn’t it? Used to be that the only films worth watching had singing and dancing in them. Things change.” People change. Both were living, breathing proof of it: she’d learned to adapt. To evolve. TO SURVIVE. What had he done? Been reduced to a drunken extra in the back of another seedy little bar; reeking of piss and watered down beer. YOU USED TO BE A KING ONCE. Do you even remember? “I WAS NEVER ONE FOR REAR WINDOW ETHICS. Would it really be so terrible, being on one network? Imagine what you could do on it. What we could do for you. You all act as though it’s the end of the world: it’s the FUTURE, and it is as beautiful as a Technicolour dream!” The glass makes a hollow clink against the counter; slender finger held up for another round and she drains the candy-pink beverage just as quickly as it arrives. Sugar, spice, and everything nice: that’s what Hollywood starlets are made from! The liquor burns down her throat like liquid courage ( SENSATIONAL! SENSATIONAL! ); the taste lingers and sticks to her teeth, her gums. “Just think about what you could do with a voice like mine behind you. Think about what you could become. There will never be a return to the past: it’s time to look ahead.”
It’s an OSCAR WORTHY PERFORMANCE: a real tear jerker, riveting! Stupendous! Pale hands creeping across the scuffed plastic and linoleum to cover his. Pause and hold for effect: he’s warm under her lifeless touch; heat spreading into her fingertips, her palms; teeth glittering in the dim light and the bar lights paint her face a violent red. DIOR NUMBER NINETY-NINE: a classic, killer shade: it compliments her dress perfectly. IF THERE’S ONE THING I KNOW HOW TO DO, IT’S HOW TO WEAR THE PROPER CLOTHES. What’s your name again? Something hard shining in those plasma screen eyes; something real clicking into place behind wires and signals and her smile pulls tight, splits. My name? “DIAL ‘M’ FOR M-E-D-I-A! Why don’t you try it? I’m sure your diction could stand some practise.”
𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑴𝑻𝑯 𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑭𝑨𝑪𝑬𝑺 / rises , floods --- no subtlety , it does not ebb and flow CYCLICAL the ever changing moon and the besmitten tide. alcohol surges , overcomes , drowns out reasoning and thought , and on the peripherals of consciousness , there is realization of self. WHO WE ARE NOW IS NOT ALL WE’VE BEEN: not all we will be. tired hands ache , almost creak , stiff , the way salt air dries and hardens --- a statue of bitterness. bar stool vinyl is cheap , cracked , faded with time and wear. something in the pulsing valves and arteries beats the same red. REJECTION / DENIAL painted in stark lines , the clench of jaw , the tick of cheek , the way nose flares and twitches in the beginning of a snarl. teeth are half bared , flat. nothing so animalistic as fangs.
there is an aching , human brittle rage in the line of his shoulders , in the lines of his face , wrinkles , emotive , expansive , life creased. IN THE NEON WOODED HEART OF AMERICA green leaf gives way to old bar , older town. life cedes to life , and a relic of times long past breaths a sigh. something expansive , encroaching and sun warm. languid , the way exhaustion dogs your steps. the way heat leeches the life from your bones. headlights cut lines across the intimate dark of the interior , neon sign buzzes away outside , bathing them in blue and red in turns. there is some measure of savagery to all life , some substance of violence in the encompassing glow. fire red , blood red , war red , red as regret. ocean blue , grief blue , death blue , blue as redemption. in the ever-shifting light the inconstancy of self , the wavering dark. EVEN THE EARTH SITS ON A CROOKED AXIS. question perched in the canopy of the mind , bird-like , takes flight --- MARTYR OF SELF: saint peter and paul and sweeney the mad.
PRESQUE VU: names have power , and in this bad land for gods , something slides into place --- realization , liquid , dark eddies pooling soil , the beginnings of new life. what’s the future without the past ? eyes bore holes into starlet , trace each flawless expression the shining . devoid gaps of their eyes. their mouth red and ever-moving. a word springs to mind --- unattractive. the beer in his grip is held lax in the crux of his fingers. precarious. ❝ what makes you think i care about the future ? ❞ unworried , lazy , languid. his voice oozes like sap , sweet , cementing. WORDS OF POWER: wielded like blunt axe. one relic of the past to another . no respect for the dead idol --- DEATH MASK ! he smiles and it is , perhaps , the softest the media has seen of his face. ❝ no voice / no future needed for the dead. whatever slog you sell aside. ❞ the beer tastes crisp on his tongue , ❝ keep your eternity , i’ve sold my hide to the old god and the trees. ❞