Movie Script 18

MOVIE SCRIPT 18

A right-handed man holds his left hand
In front of a large, flaming candle.

The skin is translucent as translucent
As a hand in a painting by Gregory De La Tour.

He holds up right-hand, it is opaque.
He examines his right, it has turned to marble.

He takes a chisel from his sculptor's rack,
He will carve a hand from the marble.

The chisel only slides off the marble.
He notices that it is marble
from Carrollton, Texas.

He picks up a hammer, and carries the chisel
To find his wife, so she can carve him a hand.

She has left a note on the mirror in her room,
She is leaving him forever, going to Carrollton.

He goes next to his neighbor, a bulky man,
To get him to carve a hand from the marble.

The neighbor has a note on his door
That he was moved permanently to Carrollton.

He goes down town to find someone
To carve the marble into shape of a hand.

The town is empty. It is now a ghost town,
Everyone has moved to Carrollton.

He finds out there is no one
in the State of Florida.
Every one had moved to Carrollton.

He decided that he just had to live
With his right hand being marble.

He could learn to use his left hand,
But it was going to be terrible

Being all alone. No one to drink
Scotch whiskey with on Thursday night.

He looked in his mirror. He saw
Only the marble, no other part of his body.


Duane Locke

Posted over on Sacramento Poetry