Our son gifted us Roku
& his Netflix password.
Now Connie & I binge
every night from 7 until 2 a.m.,
watching murder mysteries
that disturb our dreams.
Two scenes keep appearing
in these films: the shower sex scene
& the bird’s-eye view
of a vast forest, sometimes threaded
by a road the protagonist drives
to the shocking climax.
The ubiquitous shower scene,
we get, simple titillation, everything
all slippery & wet. But the
forest scene? Connie believes
the cinematographer’s just
showing off. Look, Ma, I’m
a bird! No, the forest,
the view from above, I believe
they symbolize something more
than artistic vanity, something
that repudiates the killing fields,
a lost & leafy innocence, not knowing
where we’re going but aching
for where we may have been.
