Once upon a time in Memphis,
I consumed 300 films a year;
what would I ever have done
in a ghosted town like yours,
silver screens black and silent?
Maybe I would have mired
into misery darker and meaner
than this back-lot set of a town.
What light have you found
past sprocketed faux reality,
behind de-referenced frames
and fifteen-minute reels?
Has this audience suspended,
even lynched, its disbelief?
Or rejected false projections—
walked out in the midst of the show?