Obviously, film is a young art and as such is not truly an art but an art within an art employing the devices of mass communication in a linear, non-modal, anti- or non-diversified, creative otherness which we will call density. This concept was first borrowed from the French and then before it could be returned to them, was misplaced by the prop department.

We go to the movies because a picture is playing there.

Woody Allen

from "Woody, the Would-Be Critic"

Danse Macabre

♥   ♠   xxxvI   ♦   ♣

Stardust

Late Night Cinema Extraordinaires 
 

Life-searching lonely ghosts, they float

platinum-breathing across the b & w screen,

alabaster-gowned, charcoal-tuxedoed

scrimshaw-playing pretend make-believe

never character skin-molting to complain

of a blister from a boot too small,

or pinch-welt from a corset squeeze;

passed-on phantom lovers come back tonight

dream-reawakening this electronic surreality 

where the buttered popcorn tastes stale

feels wet-cardboard soggy on mildew hands

dealt from an antique, Viennese poker deck

cut-whiffing mothball naphthalene

and old rummage clothes musty on me  

King of Clubs, scintillant-couched in the dark

hand-sparking a fading Queen of Hearts,

glow-facing silver epitaphs, flashing S.O.S.

 DLW Pesavento

Players, Chamelions 

the impulse to decadence

even with sweet angelic teens

a woman’s moans,

blend with train whistles

someone dead is watching,

inviting your doom

At this intersection

of good and evil

where murderous charm

wears many masks

their touch on the skin

of the innocent,

their lips their blood

mingle, leave a shadow

Lyn Lifshin

dm xxxvi

Stardust

♠  ♥  Danse Macabre  ♦  ♣