Golden Age

why make an R-rated film / when you could say it all
with a well-timed train shot / the scandalous rush
as it bolts through a tunnel / tide climbing
a breathless crescendo / and he and I are one

inside our post-war vistas / where paradise was
a sea of rosebud mouths / and girls who swan dived
from the Hollywood sign / where we chafed against
our studio chains / big men who sold our smiles to tape

oh the parts we would play / were we not lashed to our personas

give me a look to melt / through all that human noise
let the media mete out / its adoring indictment
tell them you can tell a real pearl / by the grit

my eyes lined something lethal / cupid’s bow poised for the kill

sinners and silents / I liberate you
from the reel / when we rise
we’re incandescent

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Anuja Mitra lives in Auckland where she would rather be doing more writing and less of her day job. Her poetry has appeared in places like Poetry New Zealand Yearbook, Milly Magazine, Sweet Mammalian, NZ Poetry Shelf, Mayhem, and Starling – and, most significantly, the Notes app of her phone.
Twitter: @anuja_m9