Poetry: from Dying at the Movies by Jonathan Hayes

from Dying at the Movies

 

I don’t think I’ve made good movies. I’ve just made some movies more disgusting than others.

— Jesús Franco, filmmaker

 

 

 

Eating strawberries and watching Suspiria

 

— blood on the fingers

 

 

Watching Okja as the bad guys try to capture the super pig

 

— its only defense is farting and shitting on them

 

 

Sitting in an empty movie theater in Boston

that reeks of vomit while watching 3-D Parasite 1982

 

— my stepfather hungover and sleeping in the seat next to me

 

 

Eating a Baconator from Wendy’s

watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

— ketchup everywhere

 

 

With my mother at Chestnut Hill Cinemas in Boston

not remembering the name of the movie we are watching

 

— only, the horror of her empty eyes staring through the screen

 

 

Watching The Stepfather pour milk into his Rice Krispies

he smiles putting his head down to the cereal bowl listening

 

— murder for breakfast

 

 

1981 watching Sleepaway Camp

with my father at a matinee in Manhattan

 

— questioning my gender

 

 

Alone in the Egyptian room

at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley watching Total Eclipse

 

— the mushrooms start to kick in

 

 

Lux Aeterna

Beatrice and Charlotte watching me

 

— burn at the stake

 

 

Watching The Omen in Manhattan with my father at Loew’s 86th Street Theater

 

— in the restroom I check for the number of the beast on my head

 

 

Watching X while it rains outside

 

— O, Mia Goth and your pudgy nose

 

 

Watching Godzilla at the matinee

submerge under the ocean to recharge

 

— the power goes out in the theater

Jonathan Hayes lives in Oakland, California.