About To Take Off Poem by gershon hepner

He always looks as though he is about
to take the clothes off women that he meets,
then hesitates, as if he had a bout
of flu, or maybe hasn’t changed his sheets,
so though he seems to be about to take
right off, impressing all the ladies with
his prowess, they soon realize he’s a fake,
whose only consolation is his myth.

Inspired by an article on Philip Seymour Hoffman (“A Higher Calling”) by Lynn Hirschberg in the NYT Sunday Magazine on December 12/21/08:

Hoffman’s role in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” was Freddie Miles, a close friend of the golden-boy protagonist, whom Hoffman played as a somewhat boorish, future captain of industry living in a constant state of plush pleasure. “He’s existing in a ‘just about to take the beautiful women’s clothes off’ world, ” Hoffman told me. “And he doesn’t like anything interfering with that mood.

12/29/08