Alan Catlin


from Memories 8

		655-

“Remember you must die.”
Muriel Spark’s Memento Mori.
Not Jim Morrison’s Alabama
Whiskey Song. Dial M for
Murder. A collect call from Death.
Operator paused. Deposit coins
for three more minutes. Death 
Interrupted.
					


		656-

The dark side of Pandora’s Box.
The silent movie. The stills. 
The collection of obscene photos.
Of actresses in the buff. Apparently,
a European custom in the 1920’s.
Sarah Bernhardt with black lace fan.
And nothing else. The Collector.
Not the Fowles novel. Or the Wyler
movie adaption. The pervert.
 
	

		658-

Louise Brook’s self-composed
epitaph: “I never gave away
anything without wishing I
had kept it; nor kept anything
without wishing I had given it
away.” “The Diary of a Lost Girl.”



		659-

“Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic
fruit, touch it and the bloom is gone.”
Lady Bracknell says. In The Importance
of Being Earnest. As spoken by Larry
Linville. Not channeling his famous role
as Frank Burns on MASH. Reciting
Oscar Wilde. At a Rep Theater. In Albany 
NY. For Actor’s Equity wages. In drag.
Having the time of his life on stage.
 


		660-

Looking for poetry. For poetic. Truth.
In all the wrong places. Alternate facts.
We are all living in a science fiction
apocalypse movie. Now. Not a Blood
Moon. Though we just had one. Not a 
Blood Harvest. Though we have those
all the time. A Blood Meridian.



		669-

The Invisible Man (Men) Ellison
or Wells. Bob Dylan’s 100 lbs.
of headlights stapled to his chest.
Oh Mama, is this really the end.

Alan Catlin is a poet, editor and wordsmith currently living in Upstate NY. Among his most recent publications is a group of poems about coming of age in the 60's, Sunshine Superman (Cyberwit) ,and The Road to Perdition (Alien Buddha), three chapbooks length collections in one book, from a series of Noir movie poems now eleven chapbooks long under the working title Hollyweird.

Collations of earlier poems from the series which the above pieces are from have appeared as two books, the first, Memories, is from Alien Buddha, and the second, Memories Too, is from Dos Madres. There's a third ready to go.

 
 

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