Charles Ludlam 2 February 2017

(Charles Ludlam 1982)

                  (Charles Ludlam 1984) 

Dramas staged in front,
Words, curds, turds behind,
Rend controlled
Morton Street,
     -Passed father to son,
     -Taste amended Stu,
     -Pot luck Bob,
     -Cock au Van;
Hambone(d) Ham(let) once
Ham-fisted cured his
Bacon with
Hard faggots,
     -Mine tried milking cows
     -Until the doing
     -So soured,
     -Not his whey;
Oedi(pull) mined, bore
Bluebeard, w(h)ore Camille,
Dragged core, showed
More the door,
     -I played a child star,
     -Drank compliments, plied
     -Coffees, sketch
     -Pads, sneakers;
Trawled sideshows, screenplays,
Drawled marionettes,
Hauled school mates
To makeshifts,
     -Followed where lines led,
     -Connected the dots,
     -Steered around
     -Any holes;
Absurd, one over,
Fill-in, extra, 'Screen'
Usurper,
Hotelier,
     -Patron impressioned,
     -Practice imprisoned,
     -Rizzoli
     -Palimpsest;
Fire(d) women, webbed
Fabrications, studs,
Cross-dressed, drunk,
Drugged, pierced, pieced,
     -Agency ad men,
     -Laid men, mailmen, bussed
     -Boys, busted
     -Boys, waiters;
Scored to voice, vowel flow,
Bowels, predilection,
Tied to hand
Outs, jobs, maids,
     -Served by view, plate glass,
     -Guys posed, cruise mode, at
     -Christopher
     -Street exit;
Plot imbedded, lines
Piece goods layered, each
Ad-lib tucked,
Improv plumped,
     -Pencil deployed in
     -Mindless scales distracts
     -From portrait
     -Progression;
Attention suctioned,
Competitors played
Down, upstaged,
Or sidelined,
     -Bone structures outlined,
     -Musculature bulked
     -Up, seated
     -As breaths draw;
Epic aspic which
Refused to gel, meat
Pieced, greased, floats,
Loincloths flashed,
     -Hands deformed, monster
     -Feet hid, shod -crude jabs-
     -Angelic 
     -At summit;
I invented me:
Playwright-director,
Actor-prick,
Designer,
     -Farm boy, city boy,
     -Pretty party boy,
     -Arty blond,
     -Witty bombed;
I give myself up,
Enter characters
Of my own
Creation,
     -Hick, itinerant
     -Painter sweet talks farm
     -Boys into
     -Posing nude;
Priest, parishioners,
Rituals rehearsed,
In soulful
Sacrifice,
     -Butterflied faces
     -Fixed on boards, writhing,
     -Concentric,
     -Darkened stacks;
Forbidden freak show
Ensemble wrestling,
Referee
In caged roles,
     -Placid blue eyes, bald
     -Lies beneath combed strands,
     -Tied in knot,
     -Buttonholed;
Take off your made up
Face, costume, changeling
Sex, fronted
Certitude,
     -The art world love child
     -Pretender, can sell
     -It direct
     -From the can;
Picture frame, in the
Round, box office, grant
Cycles, the
Critics' spin,
     -Pictures, framed, unframed,
     -Hung around, art show
     -Rounds, dealers'
     -Critics' spin;
I observe, eavesdrop,
Take a lot of notes,
Let things dance
Around me,
     -Anatomist, Tulp
     -Like, dissects his Kindt
     -After dance
     -On scaffold;
Tradition gorged on,
Old Fashioned imbibed,
Glutton on
Dining car,
     -Club car cosseted,
     -Travel through air, no
     -Platform, dive,
     -Gutter breached;
Diving in on stage,
The only place you're
Alive, art
Of body,
     -Charles untied, gay, grey,
     -Sighed, winked, embodied
     -Pimp, taker
     -Of quarters;
Would I want to live
Through a tragedy
Unless it
Were on stage?
     -Closing night, lights turned
     -Low, man in bed holds
     -Hand of a
     -Visitor.


2 February 2017