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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Delmore Schwartz

I looked toward the movie, the common dream,
The he and she in close-ups, nearer than life, 
And I accepted such things as they seem,

The easy poise, the absence of the knife, 
The near summer happily ever after, 
The understood question, the immediate strife,

Not dangerous, nor mortal, but the fadeout 
Enormously kissing amid warm laughter, 
As if such things were not always played out

By an ignorant arm, which crosses the dark
And lights up a thin sheet with a shadow’s mark.
Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
Written c. 1937
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