Real Reel Life

Real Reel Life

by John L. Harmon

(July 29, 2004)

 

Here I am

In the film of my choice

A classic from long ago

Revisited, Reimagined, Returned

A sequel of sorts

 

The setting is the same

Changes have permeated the cast

Characters revealing their true colors

Now relating to one another

In vastly different ways

 

So I am finally readjusted

Feeling good with my choice

Beginning to see my purpose

Of rejoining this film at this point

 

Yet, I sometimes ponder

What it is like for others

When I make a special guest appearance

In the old film

On the old sets

Within the old story

 

How do my previous castmates perceive me?

Am I a vapor or a mist?

A spectral memory brought into life?

Perhaps I am the figure

Caught in the corner of the eye

Quickly gone when glanced at

 

Maybe I am seen as a fugitive

From an old silent film

A flickering black and white image

Not quite in focus

Moving faster than normal

A pantomime of speech and action

Not truly there

Cue fade out

 

I give a smile and a nod

As my image starts to dim

The flickering subsides

No, not dead

Back to my film I go

Just down the lot

A different soundstage

Of a different size

 

Now I am fully comfortable

In my celluloid skin

All my props transported here

No solid proof in the old film

Of me, myself and I

Just flashbacks for my former castmates

Memories that can be forgotten

Distorted

Ignored

 

I look upon the old film

Spinning the reels in my mind

It all seems so strange

Now that I am completely home

I have one more question to ask myself

 

Without physical proof of my existence there

       ...did I exist there at all?

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

The preceding was a long poem-thing from a different decade.  It is essentially about moving from one town to another, but I suppose it could also describe moving on emotionally from one state of mind to another. 

Freak Out,
JLH