Movies Rewritten In Sleep

Shuffled like cards, even mixed
With unfilmed novels, unsold stories, lost poems

A comic's forgotten bit, whispered to a shadow on the wall-

The white horse jumps the fence
Lovers kiss under a bomber's moon
The man, blackjacketed, hard as a bullet
The woman, three parts moonlight
Her dress falling away in whispers

Tomorrow, at first light, he'll go to the Chair
His regiment will depart for the front
She'll linger in the empty town where tears reign
A rain reigning forever on the wounded straggling back
From Atlanta, Moscow, Caporetto

In an outdoor cafe, another town
You light 2 cigarettes, giving me one
While in the harbor, grown suddenly misty now
A steamer whistle shrieks

I turn away, remembering the long climb
Over the icy pass, a moving target

The lovesick girl from the hotel
Realizing at last who I was
Races into the night, following me
I hear her voice, then the cries of wolves
Then only the keening whine of the blizzard

Reaching the summit, moving through white silence
Famous, indestructable, I begin the descent