Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Where Have You Gone To Godzilla? by BJ Neblett


…memories are realities ghosts…
                                    BJN

Where Have You Gone To Godzilla?
by BJ Neblett
© 2008

Where have you gone to Godzilla?
Are there no more toy
tanks to stomp,
children to scare?
On a burning Saturday afternoon
indecisive leather clad doors swing freely
their oval panes frosted with the fingerprints of time,
just two bits a head to enter the tunnel of dreams.
Yellow brick carpet
worn smooth as grand mom’s mohair sofa
lumbers into the inky darkness,
bruised seat cushions
and jealous velvet ropes
smack of popcorn and promises and disinfectant.
A three story shroud yawns gracefully
and the billboard sized screen materializes,
celluloid church commences.

Where have you gone to Godzilla?
Have you retreated to your
octagon metal crypt for good?
White T shirt and blue jeans
the uniform of the faithful,
red Converse hi-tops
and pink Keds
become one with the floor
awash in a sea of Pepsi cement.
Coiled springs bloom like May flowers
out of the tired recliners
where me and freckled Amy Johnson
and two penny Mary Jane
form a sweet ménage a trios
in the center of the sixth row.

War, protests and hatred
dance  on the silver wall
a muddled juxtaposition
of newsreel
and preview of things to come.
Speechless Tom and Jerry
do what comes natural
to a cartoon cat and mouse
with frying pan and anvil.
Amy’s elbow has found my ribs
and my hand retreats to her shoulder.
Hazel star filtered eyes
and 70 millimeter reverie
take wing with discerning dialogue
and butterfly kisses.

Oh, where have you gone to Godzilla?
Rampaging terror in black and white
psychedelic clown in Technicolor,
there is no joy in Erewhon tonight
the king of monsters
has gone dark,
the last reel flapping your dirge.
Wide screen CinemaScope illusions
have flickered into letter-boxed reality.


                                    Youngstown, OH
                                    January, 2008

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