Backlot

You know what will happen
when you look in her eyes.
You’ve been to the movies,
missed out on the easy roles:
somebody else is walking up
to the drunken cowboys
shooting up the town,
the motorcycle gang,
the werewolf looking
for a place to settle down.
Somebody else is saying
“This is a quiet town.
We don’t want trouble.”

***

Robert E. Wood teaches in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Tech.  His film studies include essays on Fosse, DePalma, and Verhoeven, as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  He is the author of Some Necessary Questions of the Play, a study of Hamlet.  His poetry has appeared recently in Blue Fifth Review, Ouroboros,  Jabberwock Review, Sojourn, and Prairie Schooner.  His chapbook, Gorizia Notebook, was published by Finishing Line Press in August 2009.