Seretta Martin

Silent Film Theater—Film Noir

Five decades of empty theater seats, a baby grand in the alcove layered with a bizarre patina of white pigeon dung—its keyboard, a progression of dry notes. We are given pallet knives and tin buckets. If not for us, there’d be only spiders draping their webs between velvet curtains, mice scurrying among the rows, a faint aroma-memory of popcorn. Any minute I expect to see, on the frayed silver screen, Tess of Storm County, 1914, “America’s sweetheart,” Mary Pickford, fluttering her eyelids, flinging blonde ringlets, and flouncing sheer petticoats. A chair creaks. A pigeon waits in the wings.

all-day suckers
our lips chapped from kissing
in the balcony

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About the Author

Seretta Martin is a poet, artist, teacher, and managing editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual. Her works have appeared in anthologies over twenty-five years. She holds an MFA and teaches poetry. Her second book, Holographic Reality is forthcoming. Seretta is a founding member of Haiku San Diego and lives in the foothills with her son and “Itty Bitty,” his black cat.