Love Scene

EXTERIOR. PARK. DAY.
Bernard’s orchestra sets up.
There is going to be a picnic here
in this huge wooded reserve.
I sit alone
eating a boxed lunch.

Suddenly
I notice him leering at me
from behind a tree.
The strange,
overweight,
agonized artist.
The sightings always startle me.
Isn’t he hot in that suit?
There’s that weird smile;
he tilts his head back
and makes his mouth
a straight line.

I’m thinking
of your dishwater blonde hair.
I miss you,
knowing you’re near,
hearing you call for me.
I wander away
from my boxed lunch.
“Everyone disappears
at a picnic.”
I know you’re here
somewhere.

I see you at a distance,
naked
beyond the towering stock
of dark timber.
You are blinding.
It’s not just the sun.
Your long legs bring you toward me
like a haze.
Fingernails and lips blood red.
I grab your nude waist
and pull you in.
You have to kneel down to kiss me.
I love you
because you’re taller than me.
It means there is more of you
to devour
by the foot.
I want to eat your red lipstick
and get it all over me
like melting candy
on a child.

As I press against your lips,
I open my eyes
and see the artist.
I was afraid this moment would come.
How the hell did he find us?
He looks at me, agonized and evil as usual.
He nods in the direction of Bernard
who raises his baton.
The orchestra begins to play
a grand sickening theme
like the song on a carrousel
in Hell.

The devil mounts a wooden horse
painted in the various colors
of cotton candy.
His face is pumpkin orange rubber
with floppy horns
like an old Halloween mask.
He juts his pitchfork
rhythmically
as everything begins to spin.

CLOSE UP on your eye.
CLOSE UP on your red lips.
I can’t kiss them-
not hard enough.
The artist smiles, satisfied --
his mouth a straight line.
I push you to the grass,
full of desire and grief,
for I know the rest is
so divine and awful
that the music is over
and we FADE TO BLACK.