just shoot
one says let’s start by you standing there, here
in the inviting doorway of an empty coffin
a prop propped on it’s little end from which
to send forth, to launch, like
apollo astronauts or cuban baseball players,
or small-town freaks seeking the anonymity
and long, sodium-vapor shadows
of the new city in glorious night
and she complies.
photographer’s move and circle
round the ingenue du jour
sharks, at the sighting of silver fins twitching
in the cold, blue-green salt-waters
eyes dart, flashes flash, think
blink, then do it all over
break the fourth wall
then start in on the fifth
at the end, yearbook smiles, everyone says their good byes,
trudges down lost counts of bruised, concrete steps
returns in their individual measure
to the too-familiar place where movement ceases
the recent events become little, lost lambs
even the nuclear burn, full exposure of a mid-day sun
fails penetration at these fathomless depths
dark muse 