The Lights Finally Go Out Poem by Patti Masterman

The camera lights finally go out, for good:
Now it is another day, brilliant sunshine above, as he packs up his things;
The movie's over now; he was not really in love.
He has black hair, Italian ancestry, and a warm girlfriend, back home.
He did not really run to the ends of the earth and back
All for the love of one girl; for she herself, is also just an actress;
With a resume and a habit of hopping, from foot to foot, when nervous,
With bright birdlike eyes and no singing voice,
And she did not really go nearly to the brink of insanity,
Before realizing how much she loved him, can you now see the difference?
It was only a movie; were you fooled?
Just another movie; and so, they are all getting on with their lives now;
More contracts to find for more movie parts, while taking care
Of unresolved business, while they were away
Making a movie, about love and happy endings.
When he kissed her, she was thinking of nothing more than perhaps ice cream melting;
Or vanilla milkshakes, when they are turned all liquid and oozy.
When she kissed him, he thought of his baby daughter back home
And how she always smelled clean and sweet, of baby powder,
Wondering if he may have missed her first words ever spoken, while he was away so long.
However you look at it; however convincing their acting may have been,
They were not in love.
It was just cinema; meant to inspire others;
A composition about love; but still, containing very little of the real thing.
Although, there are some people whose lives are just like the movie,
And nobody can ever tell them any different;
And they never leave the set,
Until they are carried away, screaming,
Forever lost in somebody else's life and thoughts,
That never really had an existence, outside their own frantically scurrying minds-
Now who would ever want to buy a ticket
To see that?

(written to Gotan Project - Diferente)