by KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI
The 1950s TV program, the Honeymooners was filmed using three Electronicams. SOURCE/Wikipedia
(YG Poem JAN2012 – My assigned topic for The Encyclopedia Show is “The Honeymooners,” which initially irritated me, but now, I kinda dig this poem! Will be reading it live on Sunday – as always feel free to fwd/post)
late night rerun
sends me back
before Brooklyn was
Black
Alice & Ralph Kramden
in the tenement building
“BANG, ZOOM! Straight
to the moon!”
“One of these days… POW!!!
Right in the kisser!”
daily dreams in the ice box
checkered linen table cloth
rendered roaring, extracted
many shades of gray
an interesting specimen
the white American
1950’s
McCarthy
McCarthy
an interesting regimen
this blustery gentleman
1950’s
“Applause please”
“Applause please”
Alice lowers her chin
to her chest
she unfolds a tissue
from her apron
the camera closes
in on her pursed lips
it fades to black
in a square
backstage, the man who plays
Ralph sweats
his pomade melts
into waxy chunks
heart palpitations, his body
heaves,
grates against the coarseness
of his bus driver’s uniform
when he opens his eyes,
they are as wide as the moon
white around the pupil,
they grow and grow
he will never be kind to Alice
he will never say what he means
in this shabby apartment in Brooklyn,
he is hard but eager to love
comedy or tragedy
guess it depends on the tone
comedy or tragedy
here he comes again
comedy or tragedy
cheer each entrance once more
comedy or tragedy
the size of my television screen
the size of their kitchen window
i look in from where
they look out on the world
Kelly Tsai’s website is Yellow Gurl