Saturday Matinee
after Study for Going to the Pictures 1941 by Russell Drysdale
Preview
It’s Saturday again. The tall man and the child in short pants
walk hand in hand. They are going to the movie matinee.
National Anthem
The tall man sings with gusto God save the King
the king who is monarch of their town and the boy has heard men say
they will die for king and country. The boy in short pants wonders
would the king wear a golden, jeweled crown
would the king die for the tall man, for red dust and flies
The Newsreel
War in black and white, explosions, boom and bang
ships-sink-buildings-burn-soldiers-run-with-rifles-dodge-bullets
and words the boy’s ears like: luftwaffe, blitz, determination, stiff upper lip
The Feature Film
Set in a small town but not the town of the boy in short pants
another child, another family, another time and a green valley
that wasn’t green and scarecrow men blackened with coal
who rise up from tunnels in the earth, melt into the doors of houses
each one grey like…
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