In Lossless

This is one of my favorite poems I've written for class that combines my love for music, film, poetry, and the art of finding the right words.

IN LOSSLESS
After Unforgettable
by Ariel Sullivan

FADE IN:

INT. APARTMENT LIVING ROOM – DAY

A man sits at a makeshift recording studio set up on a coffee table. Computer backlight sketches hues of blue across his face. A microphone is configured in the middle of the carpet and is switched to “on.” He replays the same four songs.

(close-up of cigarette in his hand)

MICHAEL

I do my best thinking at night, when everyone else is asleep.
There’s only ambient noises, the room in little uproars

and I can only see palm trees, faded filters on fancy cars,
vulgar lyrics in sans serif and syncopated drums, speakers pulsing.

(beat)

(close-up of mouth)

Dangerous thing, to re-imagine scenes and the words
get caught between my teeth, like light struggling to expose

imperfections in blinds, little glints of street lamps across the
couch cushions in mosaic. I want to turn it all into something palpable

that I can hold in my palms. But I’m stuck on the image of you, curbside,
in a vacant gas station parking lot and your hands were shaking, saying

you had somewhere else you needed to be. I can hear the clicks of your
heels on the tile as you roam a museum floor, stopping every so often,

it is the sound of wandering. In this room, I only hear discordant beats,
a cacophony of television hums, keyboard taps, the air conditioner.

All textured layers of sound that don’t fit into my fingers. I am a poor man
who dreams that I could re-play it all in lossless audio, feel it into verses.