He was like Spider Man,
He tells me.
The way he climbed burning buildings
With a fireman’s ax.
Gene Tierney, what ever
Happened to her? he asks.
Now, there was fire
To steal from the gods!
Back then they held cockfights
On tenement roofs.
The feathers flew high,
And then drifted on the wind.
The sunset today confirms it.
The laundry on the line
Like red flags flying
In the battle of Catalonia.
And in the movies then—
Dark and so crowded,
You could barely find a seat
To see her play Laura.
Beauty is always dying, he sighs.
She, if he remembers correctly,
Didn’t appear to be in the least
Surprised about that.