MAZURKA (FOXTROT)

graph or plot against Rathbone
in shade of quilted headboard
where every child actor's
cried mama, robed Garbo's torn
shadow, lantern-translated,
(confession-on-confession) swinging
from cotillion to roadhouse
or tapping bored on Victrola
("This Time The Dream's On Me")
all day while Dennis Morgan's
hands shake in the surgery-
"Well, you could give up drinking"
like Bette could give up dancing
while eternal good sis Livvy de H. 
moons at check-fire rear-projected
behind let's-live-again clinch
with George Brent.  Slight hint dying
uncle, pleaded with in fireside
chiaroscuro, wants more of her (Davis)
than someone to laugh, drink with
but trauma is silence in this our past
where Breen's louder than Huston, 
Petersburg equals Richmond, VA 
and character is fate.  Over bridge
or under train, all good dancers
must snuff it.

2/23/00