Ekphrastic poetry by Sarah Wyman
Based on the 1969 film 'Medium Cool' by Haskell Wexler
Medium Cool
Based on the 1969 film Medium Cool, by Haskell Wexler
The boy with a cheek full of teeth the pigeon tamer dropped his basket of bird in a parking lot chased by a filmmaker who wanted to documented other stuff that turns to its own violence. Roller derby bed romp the inquisitive visitor to a tenement house films the constant human wrestling of trapped wings and uniformed sleeves of teams of police. Why wouldn’t we suspect this journalist slurping the gutter’s runoff, woman flung from her car moaning sprawled death / love confusion as blood seeps under the running board? Maybe the ambulance found her dead. The movie’s afterthought reports only the other one through the cracked glass of the lens and punched windshield unlike the suspended boxing bag offered the boy who takes the hit, suspended, the crush that of a mother who runs through Chicago in a yellow dress and white sandals from her son, the boy with wings clipped.
About the Poet:
Sarah Wyman lives in the Hudson Valley where she writes and teaches about literature and the visual art. She co-facilitates the Sustainability Faculty Learning Community at SUNY New Paltz and teaches poetry workshops at Shawangunk Prison. Her poetry has appeared in aaduna, Mudfish, Ekphrasis, San Pedro River Review, Potomac Review, Lightwood, Heron Clan XI, A Slant of Light: Contemporary Women Poets of the Hudson Valley, and other venues. Two books as well: Sighted Stones (FLP 2018) and Fried Goldfinch (Codhill 2021).