CINEMA INTO SUPERMARKET

Posted by Admin on 9 April 2008, 12:00 am

A gaping hole in front;
the broken stairs and, there
within, a loud machine
effects a drastic change.

I saw it built, some four
and forty years ago:
a cinema – the last
and best of three, you know.
The Empire, Poole’s, and then,
De Luxe, the Royalty
with orchestra complete –
a test of loyalty
to older, poorer, loves.
What ghosts of ghosts that shell
now holds! The shadow-folk
take shape, and I could tell
of Fairbanks, Swanson, Lloyd,
of Chaplin, Talmadge, Hart:
when Mary Pickford reigned,
and Menjou played his part –
deceiver debonair –
to send me homeward-bound,
aglow, my screen-struck head
a mile above the ground.