David Trinidad

Queen of the Lot

When was the last time I watched The Letter—early ’40s film noir melodrama starring Miss Bette Davis?  She shoots her lover, is acquitted, then gets stabbed to death at the end by her dead lover’s wife—played by the great Gale Sondergaard, who, as I recall, doesn’t say a word.  A seething silent performance.  Clouds moving across the full moon, moonlight filtering through slatted blinds—indelible black-and-white images, old Hollywood magic.  When was the last time I read poems by John Wieners, who so often evokes the movie queens of yesteryear?  Why, just this morning!

December 1, 2021

Author: David Trinidad

David Trinidad’s numerous books include Sleeping with Bashō, Digging to Wonderland: Memory Pieces, Notes on a Past Life, Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera, and The Late Show.  He is also the editor of A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos, Punk Rock Is Cool for the End of the World: Poems and Notebooks of Ed Smith, and Divining Poets: Dickinson, an Emily Dickinson tarot deck.  He lives in Los Angeles.

Plume: Issue #143 July 2023