Monday, March 12, 2007

Ode to an old Black and White Photograph of Stage Starlet, Octegenarian, in Cat's Eye Glasses

There you sit, in your stall so regal.
Tiffany lamp, illumini une life-chiseld visage.

One nose, held high, but then not...
No advent of intimidation, ney, haughty resignation.

For years fifteen, mine eye hath enamoured,
by lovely countenance, your proud indignation.

Once two towers there stood, on your holy ground,
a place far buried in memory, -a time, now tremor, bound.

I'll never forget how I felt in your home,
a privilege in my heart, to share hallowed ground with thee.

A starlet, perhaps? One faded bit part,
or one righteous backdoor, ancient stage tart?

Your cat's-eyed glasses tell me so much,
of your star that has risen, one life now Zenith.

The apex 'tis yours, Tiffany Illuminati.
In my soul, you will reign, one frame, one dame, now captured in time.

Now on my wall you hang, faded photograph
of time shot down like a prey in sights - so long is memory, and memory now gone.

These years that I've spent in the limelight of your faded glory,
they were years lived well, as from lofty perch with you there on watch.

My prayer is for...for the both of us.
While my star is on rise, yours now -forever placed...

In eternal home heaven,
tacked to bare wall
and there, proud refrain, and watching over all !

2 comments:

Xavier Martel said...

Beautiful. (it helps to know the story, too)

Standifer Evasto Visum said...

NY (obviously)..., 1986. The year before I had managed to scrape together a small donation for Lee Iacoca's fund to restore the statue.

I'm in a restaraunt that looks very much like the one from Seinfeld (from the outside - totally different inside)...

I snap this 8x10 glossy of this gal. I was in journalism Photography 101, so carried my 35mm everywhere.

It was an incredible moment for us both...her moment, immortalized, and my memory of that marvelous city, of its rich history, and of one very old wound betwixt North and South that had now forever been closed in my soul.

The whole moment, the whole trip, was for me about a farm boy seeing a big city for the first time (sorry Atlanta), and recognizing that he too is "from there".

The lady in the cat's eye glasses takes on a perception of liberty for me as well.

I love my country!

"REMEMBER INVERNESS!!!!"

-Stan