monique harris

family video / michigan

finally got that dream job twenty years too late / it’s been awhile
since i stepped into a video store / touched vhs / then dvd boxes
/ blockbusters / popcorn posters / summer /standing in rows
of horror / listening to a mother tell her son what’s really scary
/ late night tours / red bulb rooms / in five years all the major
video stores in this country will be closed / passers will glance
/ remember miraculous childhoods / orange sales forever / in
liquidation / someone will recall michael myers / someone else
crystal lake / plenty of decades babies debating what went wrong
/ lack of innovation / technology at its best / 

when we were sisters you always let me choose first / romance /
comedy / sci-fi / horror / thrillers / always saturday nights / when
the world lived beyond / miami / dade county / florida / tales from
the crypt / red shoe diaries / rated and foreign / strangled subtitles
/ jurassic park / gremlins / blobs / stallone / i knew i had to make
my case strong / void of actors / actresses / directors / cause you
were clueless about stars / you wanted action / sky risers / burning
building escapes / gigantic frogs / killer tomatoes / mom’s worry
finally on display / years later we’ll pass the video store without
words / on the phone / on the future / still trying / for work / jobs
/ pinkie swears / forget about what it means to escape poseidon’s / 

but some nights / we fall over the plot of some b rated movie /
thousands of miles apart / wonder how it could be made today /
if it could be made to day / black and white / cgi or real creatures
/ everything out of context / but somehow working / think about
tv tube screens / going blind / mom shouting for us to hurry /
accidental skittles / please be kind and rewind signs / suddenly
us again / even with late fees / at our cousin’s / at school / at the
friend’s / no one hiding yet / every opinion spoken / for the sake of
glorious saturdays / when mom transforms / and sisterhood lives
on / like yesterday / when sisters asked my opinion / about the 80s
/ how can i deny some kind of wonderful?