Movie Poems

DOYLE’S LAW by A. Gates

Black and white and red and all sorts of sores.
The poor dog chewed up from the fight,
Tired and dying on the bridge,
Whimpering and scared,
Angry and fed up.
So much hurt for the ol’ boy,
But they couldn’t take his bite.
He still wanted blood.
Not knowing love.
Learning to fight less than before.
The trunk the best place he had ever been.



DEAR BIANCA by A. Gates

I lose touch with reality
I long to
It’s not so great lonely in winter
I see you come to life
You stay with me
What did I do to deserve wonderful you?

You’re making friends
I don’t mind,
No, I mind
I don’t want to lose time with you
It seems you’re really harder to be with
Than I believed you would be
But I love you
God help me
I do

You are good people
Many people know this to be true
And though you are leaving us
Losing touch
I don’t want to be sad
I see good things ahead
Like you wanted me to

Magnolia Poem

LINDA PARTRIDGE by A. Gates

"Have you seen death in your bed?
In your house?"
I regret my transgressions,
Dirty secrets I only now begin to tell.
I fear I was a giver of my body to other men,
Those who were not dying in bed.
And when he coughed and his brain turned,
I was doing things wrong.
I don't want to see the son come home.
I don't want him to know
I am broken, too.
So the pills are good -
All I deserve
Because I love him -
Him whom I hurt.
So tears come naturally.
A start for rain.
As the song fades,
So do I.
A hazy mess.

Sunshine Poems

SUNSHINE (PINBACKER AND I) by A. Gates

I see the red and the black
Loose skin and bulging eyes
Menace and intent forcing fear
I am sad.
I am breathing hard and fast.
I am scared I can't do this right.
If he comes, but Capa goes,
Will I die alone?
I see his face,
And I fear
Not for my own sake
But for my loves'.
So dive.
So plunge.
Let the sum of life accept my sacrifice.




SUNSHINE (THE ABSENCE OF NOTHING) by A. Gates

I think I owe this sun my life.
I want to give all I have.
I will stare into the light
And let the blindness burn me clean.
Enveloped like a wildfire.
Sheer force of nature,
But greater than all I have ever known.
To feel the warmth,
To see the light,
To engage everything in the pit of space,
Emptiness filling,
I will take it in, and I swear
I will give up.




SUNSHINE (TREY IN THE CORNER) by A. Gates

I did this.
I am the one to blame.
I can see it in their eyes
When I shake and spit,
Tremors and tension rubbing my bones.
The drugs are swift,
They swallow me whole.
I feel nothing but shame,
And it burns.
It turns my stomach over.
Guilt is sobering.
And this blade will free me.
This blood will end this sensation.
My own action a motion I owe.




SUNSHINE (IN ITS SHADOW) by A. Gates

I am bitter.
It is cold.
I am beginning to regret -
I regret my time away from home.
I can feel myself stopping,
Struggling but slowing down,
Panic a cold wash,
Crisp sounds as I squirm to go in.
My mouth is open and sticking to it.
My skin is blue, but I can't see it.
The color it goes when you go.
I feel it as I go numb.
Odd how that can be.
The irony does not escape me.
The last thing I see is the frost on my eyes.




SUNSHINE (GREEN AS GIVEN AND TAKEN AWAY) by A. Gates

I gasped.
This one small life in all this black, burned soot and soil.
Too much to take in,
But I tried.
I knelt down and reached out a hand.
Felt my back split and blood peak.
I heard his voice preach to me.
I gasped again.
This death admist all this black, burned soot and soil.
I wanted to cry,
My mouth stretched to curse his name,
But a hollow sound was the only thing that escaped me.
A shallow breath.
I died with my eyes wide open,
Calm over my face,
Grasping that life as I so longed to alive.

Sunshine Poem

SUNSHINE (COOLS MY BLOOD) by A. Gates

My shirt sticks to my stomach.
I don't feel the pain.
My eyes light up
As the sparks begn to flame.
One into two,
Two into four,
Many, many more.
Flashing and surounding me.
Too great to begin.
The heat is close,
A force growing in front of me.
I'd say it's the sun,
But no one would believe me.
I reach to touch.
Can you touch the sun?
I see my maker.
Does it see me?
And then it glows.
It builds.
It breathes.
It bleaches out my vision
Until I see all I can see is light.

Sunshine poems

SUNSHINE (COLDER THAN HELL) by A. Gates

Colder than winter on the moon.
Liquid cracking my bones.
I tense muscles long forgotten.
Vomit on the cusp of emergence.
I lean on the cool metal above and beside.
A joke next to the frigid pool around my middle and end.
It hurts to breathe this pale cloud.
Heaving chest, chattering teeth, aching head.
Still I speak in harsh tones to myself,
"I have to make things right."
Muttering audibly,
"Capa, you better damn well save us all."




SUNSHINE (KANEDA IS LEAVING US) by A. Gates

So bright, so beautiful.
Complete absence of nothing
Sweeps over me like a warmth as vast as anything.
And I cry out that fear I hold
Perhaps as great as the light on my face.
It burns. It tears.
Moisture evaporates on my skin.
Dry sweat can't bead against the grain.
So hot, so cold.
The vague sensation is the last thing I feel.

Magnolia Poems

STANLEY SPECTOR

"What is that, Jimmy?
What is that?
I'm asking you that."
Why am I in a circus
I want no part in?
I am not happy with any of this,
But I stuck with it to make you,
Dad,
Happy enough to get through.
And right now that's not good enough.
I deserve more than content applause
And second-rate patronizing.
I reserve my right to be a kid.
I'm ready to take flight
Into the rain.
It's worth getting wet
Just to get out.



JIMMY GATOR

"The book says,
'We might be through with the past,
but the past ain't through with us.'"
It catches up with you.
It sinks its hooks into you.
It is a cancer and it make's its home.
My past,
The darker corner,
Contains family betrayal
By stealing innocence
And keeping secrets
I forget except in my sleeping nightmares.
And I am not what I seem,
Not to most of the world.
But she knows me,
And that's why she screams each time she sees me.



QUIZ KID DONNIE SMITH

"No, it is not dangerous to confuse children with angels."
No, it's not that way.
It cannot be.
Don't ask me to agree with you.
I may be drunk,
But you,
You may be more lost than me
Trapped on the end of the bar
On your pedestal or barstool.
I know what I want and I'm trying to get it.
I'll right my teeth and right my life.
All for the man behind the metal teeth
Behind the bar
Staring at me like I'm wrong to be alive.
He'll see me as better after the truth,
When I tell him "I love you."



CLAUDIA WILSON-GATOR

"Now that I've met you,
would you object to never seeing me again?"
It might be better for each of us
To skip past the trouble we could get in.
If you knew me like I know myself,
You would leave.
And I don't know that I could handle the strain.
You are good,
The best kind of man.
Get out now while your last memory is this:
This first and last kiss.
I need you and I could be with you,
But I could not live with myself
If I messed you up.
And I would.
I always do.
"So just...
Give up."



FRANK T.J. MACKEY

"I am quietly judging you."
You words do not go unheard.
I pretend to die inside
So I can see inside your lies.
But all you say are truths,
And they make me hate you.
I do.
I hate you.
I need you to know that
Without saying so.
Who can you be
To say these things to me?
Who are you,
Self-righteous bitch?
And who do you think I am?
You think you know who I am?
My dear Gwenovier,
You are not mistaken,
Just wrong to think you know all.

Royal Tenenbaums Poem

MARGOT IS ADOPTED by A. Gates

Margot was a runaway
Determined to stay away from home.
She sat in the tub at times
Flipping channels on the TV set with her toes.
Smoking out of the corner of her mouth.
Blowing fabrications into the fan.
Leaving her bearded man
To rendezvous with her novelist boyfriend.
So she sulked and walked in slow motion
Seeming too tired to smile
While Nico talked in a husky tune
So her brother could swoon and depress into death.
Love twisted out of blood,
Too important to screw with.

Wonder Boys Poem

OUTSIDE SCRANTON by A. Gates

James was a boy,
Depressed and lonely.
Happy to go with Tripp
Riding in cars getting high
Enough to eat the box.
Incredible doughnuts.
He stood in the snow
With a quiet voice
Too sad to fake apathy
Telling tall tales about penny arcades in Baltimore.
Taking time to lean his head back against the bar booth
Finishing lines to stories he overheard.
Shouting slurred "knapsack"s into a pretty girl's ears
While she took measures to help him walk.
And he shot the mutt.
Memorized the suicides.
And he's one in a million,
The best writer since The Arsonist's Daughter.
Writing stories about prize fighters and Love Parades,
Earning accolades that come in the form
Of the best professor calling at the top of his lungs
For the lonely and sad student to "take a bow, James!"