Saturday, September 27, 2008

Elegy for Paul N.



Paul. Dead.
Not the one of rumored deaths and mystical gossip, but
the hard-boiled egg-eating champeen
who yelled at god (don't we all in our own way?),
"Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it."
Like lieutenant day-un
screaming from the crow's nest in an atheist-eliminating sea squall
"You call this a storm?"
But you gotta know movies
And love a character cuts off parking meter heads
sings plastic jesus pickin' the banjer
calls his mom byes her first name
A true beat character
Oh but there is too much to tell
about just one role, one move-ie
Let alone one LIFE.
I'll be watching you and Dragline soon
And likely cry for doing so

2 comments:

Rick Dale, author of The Beat Handbook said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I like it. It's a lovely lyrical goodbye to a very cool, very Beat character, and one tough but gentle hombre, and it does capture the feel of the actor as a young man. Well done. Richard Marsh