Bijou Surrealism

“tropes that gab”
—Charles Bernstein,
Content’s Dream

Writing blind—back then
Hollywood—a vast museum
Filmscripts—inside my head
Bijou balcony—daydreams
Saturday matinees—ad lib
Chicken lyricism—improvisational
All the faces—wet dreaming
The Fifties—Late surrealism
Especially—Snake Pit Drive Ins
Teenagers—From Outer Space
Teenage Werewolves—Monsters
Teenage Blobs—Frankensteins
Lizard Boyz—from Black Lagoons
Shifting moods—in the backseat
Double Features—beneath the stars
Deadpan hardedge—pop humor
Ironic sexploitation—fake dreams
Young Jocks—with Erect nipples
Emerald eyes—Bee-stung lips
Sticking my Tongue—in Light sockets
Now arcade footnotes—but back then
Convulsive male beauty—hot
The young beast—in the backseat
How abysmal—how Borgesian
How magnetically—charged
I was inside Movies—back then
Deep—in the American labyrinth
Like I’m in Language—now.