If he had looked, he would have seen
a Tommy Bahama palm tree and four
lighthouse photos from Cape Hatteras
all ringing halos around the stacks of unfinished manuscripts and
bits of poetry that clutter her mind
as much as they clutter the binders full of one liners waiting
for their shot at stardom in a little poem
about a very naughty boy who kept telling
his mother he was good
but then who sneaks out nightly
to head to the movies with
Tom Wingfield,
then buy a taco from the
taco truck
on the corner of Vermont and 17th. before
heading to the Opium den
in Koreatown.
But he’d have to look fast, because the lights
are dimming quickly and the whole show
will be over before he realizes it,
and she will have moved on to another world,
another time, another metro station.
Word Play 