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  You ever seen me act? You could give me every good line since Chaucer, and I'd ruin it.
Zeppo Marx
 Send two dozen red roses to Room 424 and put "Emily, I love you" on the back of the bill.
Groucho Marx (from A Night in Casablanca)

humph BOGEY
 san quentin, sing sing, alcatraz,
if he busted out the slammer once
he did it a dozen times,
the smoke he pushed at you
no hazard to your health, mild even
against narrowing eyes, flared nose,
lip curled so nasty.
robinson, cagney, raft were no match.
he'd whistle down bacall,
and hepburn was easy.

think of him - leeched tugging the QUEEN.
trenching the MADRE, crazy for gold.
grounds in his coffee, nails or glass.
but what about CASABLANCA?
the song sam played wasn't just any song,
ilsa just another dame
when rick grazed her eyes,
clinked her wine, said
"here's looking at you kid."





mm MARILYN

 that last take - not MISFITS, them.
she and clark under a fine moon, posse of stars.
the colt bolts to the mountains, finds innocence.
monty broods by the corral.
she loves them all, even monty.
she says goodbye, as if tomorrow . . .

suppose she slept easy without the pills.
suppose the call got through to bobby or jack.
imagine joe in the on-deck circle
menacing in yankee pinstripes, batting cleanup,
always cleanup, arthur in the wings.

suppose she packs, grabs her poodle
slips out the side door, incognito
as she can be in silver lame,
top cut low enough to jog the dullest memory.
suppose she flies into morning
lands in Majorca, hops a single emgine
some island off the map.

say she practices her spanish
words like 'buenas noches' and 'adios'
fading into orange roofs, papaya
a shell's throw from the water
the sand and sun, a bird sings to her
wants no autograph.

Two poems by Lee L Berkson
from the Faber book of MOVIE VERSE.
Edited by Phillip French and Ken Wlaschin
on-cue back