Homage to “Laura” [by John Harbourne]

Sketches by John Harbourne. Copyright (c) 2022 by John Harbourne. All rights reserved.

laura

Then the doorbell rang.
Time for another cigarette.
It wasn’t Laura’s body on the kitchen floor.
He’s not in love with a corpse

Time for another cigarette.
The spiteful drama critic insinuates
He’s in love with a corpse.
It’s a typical male-female mix-up.

The toxic drama critic knows
He’s sane.
It’s a typical male-female mix-up.
He thinks she’s dead and she thinks he’s being rude.

Is he sane?
Each wonders what the other is doing in her living room.
He thinks she’s a ghost and she thinks he’s rude
When the picture on the wall becomes a flesh and blood woman.

Each wonders what the other is doing in her living room.
It hasn’t stopped raining.
The picture on the wall becomes a woman of flesh and blood:
Gene Tierney in Laura.

It hasn’t stopped raining.
“Ladies always pull a switch on you”
says Dana Andrews in Laura.
There was something he forgot.

“Ladies always pull a switch on you.”
It wasn’t Laura’s body on the kitchen floor.
There was something he forgot.
Then the doorbell rang.

-David Lehman