Devils & Islands: Poems

Production Values

Production Values What is it we accept as real? The gaslight decades found no fault In canvas flats or painted waves; The 1930s did not cringe At back projections as the world In which screen heroes moved. For now, Computer imaging persuades. Tomorrow its spaced dots may seem Virtual unreality Or living actors virtual. There is a test. The actual Shows up the act for what it is: Impersonation. Oedipus No actor not a lunatic Would take on in Vienna. Couch One-ups the built-up boot, the throne, As Ptolemaic marriage Makes blinding oneself seem de trop. No actress into middle age Enjoys a scene with ingénues. One cannot pass for young if youth Itself is present, any more Than a Kabuki heroine Would be mistaken on the street For woman. Did castrati sing Convincing lullabies? The Globe’s Pubescent Rosalinds prolong Careers by trained falsetto? Or, 17 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. At so to say the first crack out, Give up? If blackface power passed For true Black Power, minstrel shows Might still be on the boards. Ahead, If they join Actors Equity, One must decide if clones have less, Or have the same seniority As those who gave the DNA. Eternal understudies they, Reality denies them role. But Jekyll knows that Hyde is there, And Hyde knows it is not makeup By which in him we see ourselves. 18 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...