by Jay Passer
I don’t sleep well
I blame it on fear of certain films
the upside-down world of chaos
and drowning the most possible inevitability
where a Christmas tree represents
the escape ladder
with men and women falling to their deaths
and Gene Hackman declaiming to God
ammo for a precocious little kid
to discover vodka
decades before
ever tasting any.
Artist's Statement
This poem is one of 100 themed poems based on movie titles, collected in a single volume to be published in the near future. The work places the author into the world of film as spectator, participant, critic, bon vivant, victim.
Jay Passer's poetry and prose has appeared in print and online since 1988. He is the author of 12 chapbooks; most recently Prelude to the Culling, from Alien Buddha Press, 2020. Passer lives in San Francisco, the city of his birth.
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