Godard discovers that the afterlife 
is Cannes, while the entire littoral, 
from Cezanne’s house to Matisse’s, is studios, 
infinitely flush. He enters 
at the top. That first night Arletty, Gabin 
come calling, and a penitent Bardot. 
There’s a catch, however: north of Vence 
nothing happens in the next world; 
one has to work with what one hears from ours. 

The film he makes involves a superhero 
in the lower depths of a Chicago 
that resembles Marseilles. Everyone knows 
who he is, but when he’s forced to admit this 
he drinks. He’s trying to do what he can 
with sardonic kindness. Trump and Putin rule, 
the cops are mobsters, everything’s corrupt. 
Will he put on the tights again, shoot rays 
from his eyes, bring justice? Fin. 

Frederick Pollack

is the author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure (Story Line Press, 1986; reissued April 2022 by Red Hen Press) and Happiness (Story Line Press, 1998), and two collections, A Poverty of Words (Prolific Press, 2015) and Landscape with Mutant (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018). In print, Pollack’s work has appeared in Hudson Review, Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, Manhattan Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Main Street Rag, Miramar, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Poetry Quarterly Review, Magma (UK), Neon (UK), Orbis (UK), Armarolla, December, and elsewhere. Online, his poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Diagram, BlazeVox, Mudlark, Occupoetry, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, Misfit, OffCourse, Big Pond Rumours (Canada), and elsewhere.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ “Challenging the poverty of words: Interview with progressive poet Frederick Pollack” by Michael Berkowitz in People’s World (12 January 2022)