Bijou…in afternoon is amniotic hatchery
dried parsley and old women’s shoes…
then evening steeps it to bean soup
sour laundry soap and moldy windowsills
Bijou…where rats…twitch…scurry birth
each way over under through…attentive
to faint hiss of cockroach mouthing glue
beneath pale skin wallpaper peel
Bijou…where brown bats sweep through
broken panes…strike insect flick…and smoke
white doves coo guttural on ledges…and night
shrinks wood to incremental creak
Bijou…copper stripped…stage rain warped,
house curtain velvet torn…all potent with decay
though I shall not gravely mourn for knowing
how previous gives way to new
and…I shall not be present for the wrecking
smash and crash, nor shall I recall its marquee
silhouette against an empty sky without seeing
as in dusty mirrors…my own exiting
Bonnie Marshall
Photography by Joey B. Lax-Salinas
Proem... 
Excellent Bonnie…the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out….but I love the further implications of our superiority being our own illusion. Good One!
Intriguing take away, Jana, and thank you. I’m thinking mortality is humbling…and fascinating in it’s own rather morbid way. Wish Spring were already here! Smiles…
… but you still have performances, with nice whitewashed walls, helpful lists, banners, your own PA system, all still working; and will still working way into the future …
Thanks, Mark…absolutely right. There’s a song in South Pacific…something about a cockeyed optimist…that’s me. Smiles.
An elegant jewel Bonnie…
Very grateful, John,…and imagine a curtsy.
What legacy the Bijoux, such humility the narrator.
Another wonderful poem, Bonnie. Your observations connect the material world with the metaphysical. We get to see beyond the stage.
Such a thoughtful response, Sharon. Very important to me. Smiles…
Your imagery is so strong. It must have taken many re-writes to produce a work like this. Well worth it.
The exiting at the end makes me think of all the times you must have spent in the Bijou, sitting with the rest of the audience. What memories you must have! Now most of us watch movies at home, sometimes alone.
Thank you very much, dear reader. The theater haunted me until I worded it. Smiles…