The wilting in the heart
Looking through your order history
Is more real
Than any photo album
Any idea can fail you
The gray-blue Pietra Serena sandstone floor
Of the Apple Store
Supplied from one mountain quarry
In Italy
Is on my mind
This is all very nonspecific
The way most prescriptions work
Today
Juli and I are supposed to see Wings of Desire
Screening at 2:00
Then write poems
Time can feel
Like a game we play
Co-star says
My day at a glance is
'Luck'
Symbolized by
A crystal ball
And a jeweled crown
&
'Frustration'
Symbolized by
A light bulb
A fist
A hammer
A wrench
And a disembodied flexing arm
I was just on Monster.com
So maybe that information is correct
Work is one of those things
That will always be
Too soon
In Wings of Desire
Two angels
Who perch
On top of high buildings
In Berlin
Can hear the thoughts
Hopes
Dreams
Fears
Of all the people
In the city below
In one scene
They talk to each other in a Mercedes convertible
About all of the embarrassing shit
They've heard people think
Then lament
How all they want
Is to lie
And feel pain
It's so German
The film was made
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall
And remade in 1998
Under the title
City of Angels
Starring Nicolas Cage
And Meg Ryan
And featuring
That song
"Iris"
By the Goo Goo Dolls
On the way
To the theater
We see
One mattress in the rain
One treadmill in the rain
Then champagne brunch
Followed by the movie
Where
The Amherst College professor
Will tell us
In German
The title of the film
Literally translates as
The Heaven Above Berlin
Director Wim Wenders
Wanted to film
On both sides of the wall
But was denied entry
To East Germany
In the film
There is 18 seconds
Of footage
From East Berlin
Smuggled to Wenders
By some friends
There is a lot I could say about that
How
American Idol
Survivor
The Apprentice
Were also
Constructions of reality
How our lives themselves
Are critiques of what is possible
At the end of the film
Damiel having
Given up his wings
Hands a glass of wine to Marion
The trapeze artist
And she drinks from it
Without speaking
This is their first interaction
As human lovers
It gets me
How he doesn't even see Marion approach
His wingless back to the camera the entire time
He just turns around
And isn't that how
We are
When we are
Dead serious
About making our point
Or when
Marion looks to the camera
And spills
Her monologue
About how
She is so happy
Now that
She can be truly alone
With no angel
Over her shoulder
Even though
He's right in front of her
Wearing a really ugly wool jacket
The implication I guess
Is that death and happiness
Are related
And also maybe
Kind of a slight
To the divine
The scene drifts
In a way
That is ethereally
But not fully
Detached from reality
The way
Things in this life
Could happen
Were it not
For words
Tomorrow
Juli and I watched
City of Angels
I bought cat food
And a banana cream tart
On my way home from work
The magnetic strip on my debit card
Is almost completely worn away
The chip still works
Angel, are you looking over my shoulder?
Would you surrender your wings
To eat an edible
And just chill?
Juli tells me that if I can stay awake
For the entire duration of City of Angels
She will respect me as an artist
I'm not sure if that happens
But in the opening scene
A dead child asks Nicolas Cage
If he is god
He says
No
My name is Seth
Later Meg Ryan
Performs heart surgery
To a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo
Only to have the patient die
Throughout the movie
It's obvious
Nicolas Cage
Can't make
A Damiel face
He is Seth
In another scene
Meg Ryan
Sings the jingle
For a Band-Aid commercial
Then drinks a Rolling Rock
In a bathtub
What were the 90s?
When the stream playback of the movie freezes
At 41 minutes 38 seconds
Juli slices the banana tart
Then holds the butter knife to my mouth
Expecting me to lick the blade
But I bite it instead
Making
A weird sound
It takes 3 attempts
To get the WiFi
Working again
And when the Goo Goo Dolls song
Finally comes on in the movie
It's not even that dramatic
Not the way
I remember it on MTV
I guess
Lyrical abstraction
Is hopeless
Though
Revisiting it now
Most of the music video
Is just lead singer
Johnny Rzeznik
Rolling back and forth
In an office chair
Don't ask me how
The Heaven Above Berlin
Becomes
Wings of Desire
Becomes
City of Angels
But it does
