A man approaches the ticket counter
At the Phoenix Art Museum
He believes to be screening
A popular Maya Deren film
The marquis behind the counter
Over the cashier's shoulder
Does not advertise this
The cashier looks amused
The man peers around them,
As though they were an obstacle
As though they are not a source
Of nearly boundless knowledge
Less than a minute ago
The man double-checked the event
On the museum's event calendar
In the shadow of a dyed glass phallus
Which shielded his device
From the sunlight
With all available certainty
He asked of the "Film screening"
Having forgotten
All identifying words
"There typically are not film screenings
At art museums
Try the AMC
On 3rd Ave and Taylor"
Meekly, he explained he saw
Online that they were screening
Experimental films on Sundays
Then he apologized
For not remembering
The name
Of today's feature
"Seems a bit odd, walking all this way
To watch a film you don't know the title of."
How did they know he walked?
"You're banded with sweat."
So he was
The denial persisted
He finally took out his phone
Showed the cashier the event
"I can't imagine why
Anyone
Would put themselves through this film"
They printed a ticket.
A friend of his said he should watch it
It seemed like the sort of thing
He'd be into
They withheld the ticket,
Severed from the roll,
And sang
"And if the difference between life and death
Is having feelings you can't express
That secrets are power
Is the only power you have
He seemed like the sort of thing I'd be into
And if I have those feelings enough
Will he happen again?
Meaning runs from your arms
like children
After dogs
Like dogs after moving cars
Meaning seemed like the sort of thing I'd be into
The draft from the shaft
Between knowing and meaning
Gives us the flu
Who dies
And who mourns?"
The man accepted the ticket
Followed a velvet rope
The ticket taker asked of his sticker
The sticker is also required, see
Denied
The man returns to the cashier
"I demand sticker"
A shortage of stickers is declared
"You must earn one to proceed
Through dissonance of deed
So wisely or not, choose your attack
For everything destroyed
Someday comes back"
And so he understood
Interviewing the bourgeoning line
Biting off the noses
Of anyone not waiting
For the screening of a popular Maya Deren film
Having passed with his sticker
The man settled in his seat
The film sputtered into vision
But the cashier's song
All the man can hear
The bloody pile of noses
All the man can see
He felt like propaganda
To tolerate himself
Left salty mouthed in secret
Halfway through the film
Eight months later
The man received a check
For $31
He wondered what he was into
What was on the marquis
At the Phoenix Art Museum
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