Sunday, October 23, 2011

They Hate This

Just finished participating in the Canzine Hollywood Ripoff challenge where 3 contenders - an illustrator, a 'zinester' and a poet (me) had 30 minutes to come up with an image, a zine or a poem based on a movie. The movie, revealed only at the last minute, was Ghostbusters. I'm pretty pleased with what I delivered (though I sweated a bit!). Here it is:


They Hate This

“They hate this,”
he says
fingers tinkling on the keyboard
“but the ladies love it,”
he thinks.
The charm
His charm
as he lays it on thick
heaps it on
like gravy
spilling over the keys
but she’s not buying it
looks at him like he’s a crackpot
Ha!
She’s the one who called
Ghost Busters
She’s the one who called
Peter Venkman
And Peter Venkman delivers
whether its
attention to lonely old ladies
or attention to lonely young ladies
or even middle aged lady crackpots
who call Ghost Busters…

“What’s your name?”
he asks.
“Dana,” she offers reluctantly
“Well Dana. It seems ok in here to me,”
he says
“But a little messy…”
She seems displeased
Good.
That’s how it always starts
but soon
the charm creeps inside
haunts you
gets inside your bones
like ghosts
in the architecture
and at first you think
you want the ghosts out
that you want
Peter Venkman to leave
but the memory lingers
like the dear departed
and soon enough
who ya gonna call
to haunt you?
to possess you in your body
until you’re writhing in bed
longing for the keymaster
hovering five feet above
your passion
in feverish desire
until who you gonna call?
You’ll call this ghost buster
to bust your ghosts
to make your eggs pop
right out of the carton
and fry on the tabletop
until you don’t know
what’s come over you
until you scream out in lust:
“There is no Dana!
Only Zool!”

“Oh yes,”
he says
fingers tinkling on the piano
“They hate this.”
“But,” he thinks
“The ladies
love it.”