movies

Cinematic History

With leer to camera, flourishing his cape,
And twirling fingers at his waxed moustache,
The villain pauses, and then makes his dash
Towards the damsel with her mouth agape.

The screen blacks out a moment for suspense
And in the gap the words “She screams” replace
The awful action. Then that gaping face.
But the only screams are from the audience.

Lean men prone to heroic understatement,
they have a drawled, laconic way of speaking.
They know that for their debts there’s no abatement
nor boundaries to the vistas they are seeking.

No, there’s only the Front Range of the Rockies
behind which the westering sun is setting
on stallion breakers too strong to be jockeys
and water rights the Judge of all is vetting.