Extra in a B-Movie Western
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By Kilb50
- 1005 reads
That summer we were extras
in a B-movie western.
I was an unshaven minor ranch hand.
You were the rancher’s youngest daughter.
Bottles of inky water masqueraded
as liquor in the dirty saloon where we met.
A padre stood at the bar wearing
a long black gown, dusty as high noon.
His face was familiar to me:
‘Maybe the daytime soaps’ you said,
and smiled your exquisite smile
and caught the director’s eye.
He framed your face with his fingers
with the promise of a speaking role.
I knew then how things would end –
it’s a story as old as the hills.
The leading man was a veteran
of Hollywood’s threadbare casting couch
and I know being an extra in a B-movie western
ain’t much of a life, locked in a story
not of your own making, weaslin’ your way
through a long day’s shoot.
They say that God looks like John Wayne.
(It’s a joke amongst the crew.)
When they told me you’d snuck
into the leading man’s trailer
one of the James boys took my arm.
Fame is an aphrodisiac for sure, he said.
So don’t go holding it against her.
Everyone has a right to grab their one and only chance.
They told me he kissed you outside
the dried goods store. The runner saw it,
along with the guy who paints the horses.
A ‘leading man kiss’, they said,
though the cameras were’nt rollin’.
A smooth operator, they said, who had the studio’s ear.
I’ve watched that shmuck’s films a hundred times;
observed the way he smiles, tips his ten gallon hat.
They go wild in the city for his amorous suavette.
He always gets the girl in the end.
I guess love don’t come natural
to men like me – the unshaven ranch hands
without a dumb-ass line to speak.
‘It’s a wise child, sir, that knows its own mother.’
That was the line they gave you. You spoke it well,
on the prairie, beneath a pale yellow sky.
Maybe God don’t look much
like John Wayne anyways.
Maybe God too is locked
in a story not of His own making.
I watch the rancher’s daughter
as she sashays down the aisle –
point my loaded Colt
at the leading man’s head.
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This wonderful piece is our
This wonderful piece is our Poem of the Week - Congratulations!
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Picture Credit:https://tinyurl.com/5n8na8zf
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This is a great piece, well deserving POTD
Very interesting could well be a true story. The two line stanzas are a good idea for getting this across. If God looked like John Wayne I hope his politics are different
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