Poems
In what had been a failing music store
A man named Flowers opened the first cinema In Moultrie. Ralph was the projectionist, At seventeen the first projectionist. And there was a piano from the store On which the wife accompanied the action With little bursts of von Suppé and Wagner. Ralph liked the dark of the projection booth; He liked the flickering images of the screen. And yet because he liked it all so well, He feared expulsion from this Eden, Not so much feared as knew the day must come, Given his luck, when it would all run out, Which made the days more paradisal still. Margot, the daughter, twenty and unmarried To tell it all quicklyseduced Ralph. She let him think he was seducing her. They used to meet in the projection booth, Embracing wordlessly but laughing too, Unable to suppress their self-delight. Time after time ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 17 June 1999, on page 34 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/ralph-justice-2840
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