*a special poem for Halloween
She sneers when she
talks about the rubber
Frankenstein’s Monster
I keep on the shelf next to
pictures of our trip
to Cancun.
Once, I caught her
with a plastic grocery bag
loaded and heavy with
Fangoria
Famous Monsters
and one old Aurora catalog
I rescued from Grandpa’s trash bin
when I was eight.
Ashes to ashes,
pulp to pulp, she said.
No, I said.
Not Boris Karloff.
Doesn’t she understand
this is Karloff?
The Karloff
who garnered enough fame under
gallons of spirit gum to simply
be known as one word.
The Creature:
Karloff.
Doesn’t she understand
this is about growing up with
silver-screen television late night horror show
blood thudding through my veins?
No I will not throw out
the molded plastic drinking glasses
or the bobble-head
or the fired-clay bust from ninth grade art.
Her eyes roll,
she hands me the bag,
and I stash my treasure
under the tall, Lucite-framed
original lobby card
announcing The Monster Demands a Mate,
hanging from the basement wall
of my shrine.
Doesn’t she know?
Boris Karloff is only a man-crush after all,
and not a threat?
Not much of one,
anyway.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Happy Birthday, Bela Lugosi
(20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956)
Born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, Lugosi was a Hungarian born actor who is most famous for his portrayal of the legendary vampire, Dracula, on stage and in Universal's Dracula (1931). He went on to co-star with Universal stalwart Boris Karloff in a few films, including the often underrated The Black Cat (1934).
(which, for the record, has very little to do with Edgar Allan Poe's tale despite advertising to the contrary)
Monday, October 11, 2010
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