Friday, July 27, 2018

Poem for Friday and MoPOP Sci-Fi

Because of the Wonderful Things She Does
By Evan J. Peterson

Oh, Dorothy.
You slap lions &
defeat witches,

you help grown men
become kings,

you help fake
wizards get clean,
you dry their tears

on your gingham
dress—big jobs

for an eight-
year-old. The Scarecrow
learned

to strategize,
& the Tin Man always

loved, grieved
over crushing a bug.
& the Lion

ever had courage,
lacked only confidence

till Oz, the Great
And Terrible Fraud,
slipped him

a syrupy placebo.
But you, Dorothy?

You never
truly had the power
to take yourself

home. Sure, the shoes—
those silver, tap-dancing

teleporters,
but they’re not yours.
Home was always

beyond you, as you
took care of marvelous men.

Men who don’t
eat nor sleep but weep
into your skirts—

ain’t that just like a man?
(ain’t you too young to know?)

And of course
there’s your curious habit
of killing people

by accident. What Oz
himself couldn’t do,

nor the Good
Witch of the North.
Pig-tailed assassin,

you freed slaves,
Winkies & Munchkins,

a sort of reverse
John Wilkes Booth.
You kill with scrub water,

you kill with your house.
You kill

like a girl.
& that humbug, that huckster,
that flimflamming

grifter, that shuffler,
that hustler, that swindler

duped you. Oz,
that papier mâché
puppet head,

pressed you to kill.
Here’s rope, so hang:

no hot air
balloon ride on your
bucket list.

Just cute shoes
to walk you back

to bleak, flat
Kansas: happy
dust-bowl,

Dorothy, you Not-Queen
of Oz.

--------

I organized and Freecycled a bunch of stuff in the morning, then at lunchtime I had an invitation to an EX raid at Starbucks, so I went and met friends there, caught Mewtwo, then went and got bagels and came home to do some more unexciting housework. It did not rain all afternoon and it was only in the mid-80s, so a nice day out by the standards of this July.

I am ashamed to admit that, after rewatching the middle of Burden of Truth since we missed half of it while on the phone last night -- I'm glad to see Kristin Kreuk in a non-genre show -- we watched Baywatch to the bitter end. I'm sure I've seen worse movies in the past five years but I can't think what. From the Museum of Popular Culture, some of the science fiction and fantasy costumes:

DSCN7945
Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak. *snickers*

2018-07-04 13.11.18
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

2018-07-04 14.45.48
One of Doctor Who's Daleks, toilet plunger and all.

2018-07-04 14.41.33
Greedo after Han shot first.

2018-07-04 14.41.14
The Terminator's leather jacket and various accessories.

DSCN7949
Clothing belonging to Westley, Princess Buttercup, and Inigo Montoya.

DSCN7961
Connor MacLeod a.k.a. The Highlander's furs and kilt.

DSCN7939
Paul posing for the obligatory "Friend of Dorothy" shot.

No comments:

Post a Comment