PERRY SMITH 

“Most writers start simple,
then they become more &
more complex. Then they
have to unlearn everything
they’re acquired. Simplicity
and swiftness: that’s what
I value.”—Truman Capote,
Sacred Monsters, Edmund White
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Talk about déjà vu flashback
it was like being resurrected again

The first time I saw the actor
Robert Blake playing Perry Smith
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Not just his stunningly clear
physical resemblance to Perry

But the same shifty-eyed look
shock, frustration, helplessness
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Reliving that first time in Kansas
seized by a young killer’s goodlooks

I couldn’t accept the idea that
he was just pretending to be Perry
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Blake was Perry all over again
yanked from the grave, buck-naked

Seeing what I wrote back then
becoming a living “In Cold Blood”
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Not just a novel anymore
But everything coming up again

Each secret little killer detail
rediscovered up there on the screen
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Not just imaginary replay but
actual slow motion denouement

Distillation of that  reality
returning more true than ever
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Almost too real to be reality
mirrored to haunt me once again

The movie as non-fiction novel
frame by frame by frame