Sylph Or Siren Poem by gershon hepner

Sylph or siren,
legs have it,
Keats and Byron
both avid
supporter of
the siren and
the sylph. In love,
a bird in hand
is worth the two
in bushes. I’ll
take either, screw
them for a while,
of course provided
that their legs
get me excited
before sex.

Manohla Dargis writes about Cyd Charisse’s ten minute dance routine in “The Broadway Melody Balleet” sequence in “Singin’ in the Rain” (“Sylph or Siren, the Legs Have It, ” NYT, June 19,2008) :
Her legs could send viewers into raptures, and after watching “Singin’ in the Rain” again, it’s easy to see why. She’s on screen less than 10 minutes — simply called the Dancer — but she dominates the windup of this American classic. The number, “Broadway Melody Ballet, ” occurs in a film within a film that takes flight with Kelly as an eager hoofer looking for his Broadway break, singing “Gotta Dance! ” He slides on his knees toward the camera, abruptly stopping before his hat, which has somehow become perched on a foot attached to a long, long leg. He gapes (as do we) as that leg then rises straight in the air with phallic suggestiveness, a prelude to a carnal encounter that was as close to on-screen sex as was possible in the 1950s and wholly sublime.


6/19/08