{"id":14105,"date":"2022-03-13T12:19:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T10:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=14105"},"modified":"2022-03-21T12:19:22","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T10:19:22","slug":"poems-by-frank-de-canio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=14105","title":{"rendered":"poems by Frank de Canio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This Movie Heiress<\/strong><\/p>\n

(is bequeathed her agency)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I have been taught by masters,\u201d she says<\/p>\n

when her aunt asks her, \u201cCan you be so cruel?\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, cruelty becomes her like fizz<\/p>\n

champagne. How droll she looked under the rule<\/p>\n

of her father when she meets gigolo<\/p>\n

Morris Townsend, Clift\u2019s character, who wants<\/p>\n

her money. Her demeanor\u2019s soon aglow<\/p>\n

before her ruthless father\u2019s anger taunts<\/p>\n

her with affronts that she\u2019s pedestrian,<\/p>\n

and worth no more than her inheritance<\/p>\n

accords her. Ever the chameleon,<\/p>\n

her faux beloved takes another stance<\/p>\n

when he assesses that she\u2019s been disowned,<\/p>\n

whereon his rapt avowals are postponed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In fact, her nature\u2019s <\/em>disinherited<\/p>\n

And\u00a0 boy does she become alive. For, stripped<\/p>\n

of the respect her duty merited,<\/p>\n

she\u2019ll hastily rewrite the gendered script<\/p>\n

society had given her, and spurn<\/p>\n

her father even to the day he dies.<\/p>\n

And when her lovelorn gigolo returns<\/p>\n

to plan for the elopement he decried<\/p>\n

originally, she becomes as deaf<\/p>\n

to his repeated knocking on her door –<\/p>\n

to consummate the tryst – as when he left<\/p>\n

her in the lurch to sadly play the poor<\/p>\n

abandoned lover. How she blossoms like a rose,<\/p>\n

with all the prickly thistles on its stem,<\/p>\n

when she assumes this passion-driven pose.<\/p>\n

Indeed, a bit less ladylike than femme,<\/p>\n

her flowering becomes a stiff rebuke<\/p>\n

to predators who\u2019d stalk her foliage.<\/p>\n

Her scent\u2019s for honeybees, but thorns to spook<\/p>\n

those who would compromise her personage.<\/p>\n

For pollen in her stamen\u2019s filled with bile<\/p>\n

that doesn\u2019t reach her less receptive style.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Going Psycho<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just Marion\u2019s shower scene that made the viewer crane forward with bulging eyes, but all the speculation leading up to it. For she was the protagonist who functioned as our surrogate. And Hitchcock was a master of suspense; MacGuffins that would leave the viewer tense with expectation. But we would garner produce from the seeds he sowed for us. The forty thousand dollars that she stole from her employer? Surely the police were on her tail. The used car salesman who sold her the getaway vehicle would have talked them into following her. Maybe Norman, the proprietor of the Bates Motel, where Marion had checked in for the night – before deciding to face the music – would grow a bit suspicious and turn her in. And the conversational chagrin she\u2019d mustered from him, suggesting that he put his mother away someplace, set the pace for anticipating the master\u2019s next moves. Perhaps Bates would blackmail her to share her bounty with him in lieu of going to the police; or they\u2019d elope together and leave Sam Loomis, her luckless lover, in the lurch. We carried this baggage into the bathroom\u2019s shower stall, where it\u2019s clear Marion was going through a spiritual cleanse, a symbolic renewal, as it were, only to have the rug pulled out from under us. We all had our narratives. And we were all wet!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Foiling Fraulein Fate<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My dear. You can\u2019t force me to play the game<\/p>\n

according to your arbitrary rule;<\/p>\n

as though you had proprietary claim<\/p>\n

on me who\u2019ll stay accommodating fool.<\/p>\n

I realize now that you\u2019re a heartless dame<\/p>\n

who takes your well-tooled laborers to school<\/p>\n

and makes robust, conditioned athletes lame<\/p>\n

until, without regret or shame, they pule.<\/p>\n

But I will soon go back to where I came<\/p>\n

from; scorning need to bicker or to mewl<\/p>\n

like some spurned love imploring his ex-flame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll feel your angling line rewind its spool<\/p>\n

before I take the bait that fixes blame.<\/p>\n

Let others sue for arbitration who\u2019ll<\/p>\n

have grit enough to harness and to tame<\/p>\n

your fickle doings – prone to ridicule<\/p>\n

the just and give the superficial fame.<\/p>\n

Confronted by the evidence that you\u2019ll<\/p>\n

maintain for good or ill that fateful frame<\/p>\n

you weigh on me, I play my hand with cool<\/p>\n

disdain, assured your aimless game\u2019s the same<\/p>\n

though men proclaim you goddess, gal or ghoul.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For Their Sport<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What cruel, indifferent gods are these<\/p>\n

who watch our means depreciate.<\/p>\n

Like wanton children on their knees<\/p>\n

who pitilessly agitate<\/p>\n

belabored insects in a jar,<\/p>\n

they mock our slippery ascent<\/p>\n

toward peaks we travel long and far<\/p>\n

to climb. Indeed our lives are spent<\/p>\n

on this. Just when we reach the rim<\/p>\n

of our pursuit, we\u2019re knocked back down<\/p>\n

where former vantage points give grim<\/p>\n

rejoinders, making smilers frown.<\/p>\n

For that brief windfall that we got<\/p>\n

brings in relief our lesser lot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Philosophical Rant\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let ravages of sickness lay me low,<\/p>\n

while I endure it with a sober mind.<\/p>\n

Let all the fickle fates and furies know<\/p>\n

that tense encounters scarcely will unwind<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Able to maintain a steadfast heart,<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I shall consider I\u2019m a lucky man<\/p>\n

    if self-destructive urges don\u2019t impart<\/p>\n

    far worse than any act of Nature can.<\/p>\n

    If I secure integrity intact,<\/p>\n

    should all society impugn my name<\/p>\n

    or taunt my steps, their venom won\u2019t distract<\/p>\n

    me, or extinguish my ambition\u2019s flame.<\/p>\n

    But woe to those who, lucky or bereft,<\/p>\n

    abandon self-restraint, till nothing\u2019s left.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Let every girl I dote upon rebuff<\/p>\n

    my amorous advances as a key<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ll stand before life\u2019s sterner stuff.<\/p>\n

    For unrequited love may sadden me,<\/p>\n

    but not destroy the fabric of the clothes<\/p>\n

    my biologic nature dressed me with.<\/p>\n

    Nor will I rend them with a caustic pose.<\/p>\n

    Let storms be metal for my bustling smith<\/p>\n

    to forge into a more effective sword<\/p>\n

    that I can wield against adversity.<\/p>\n

    Let tribulation be my treasure hoard,<\/p>\n

    and I\u2019ll brook shame and poverty with glee.<\/p>\n

    But woe to those who use their privileged birth<\/p>\n

    to wallow in the entrails of the earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This Movie Heiress (is bequeathed her agency)   \u201cYes, I have been taught by masters,\u201d she says when her aunt asks her, \u201cCan you be so cruel?\u201d Indeed, cruelty becomes her like fizz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1548,77],"tags":[1549,1123,1559],"class_list":["post-14105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-71","category-english","tag-egophobia-71","tag-english","tag-frank-de-canio"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3Fv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14107,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14105\/revisions\/14107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}