This is a video poem shot on my iPhone. A study in low light, lens flare and auto focus. I was looking for a visual component for my audio short Curbside Noir. It needed something to match the somber tone of its music and the spirit of its monologue. It had to be dark. It had to paint the world in silhouettes and shadows.

When it rained on the walk home, I took advantage of it, bobbing from entryway to entryway, hugging the storefronts. I cupped my fingers into a tarp over my phone. Then I let the storm put on a show.

Drizzle swarmed the street lamps. Headlights set the air aglow. Droplets turned everything into a reflective surface. Puddles tinted the street a shade of amber, light mirrored in the asphalt. I shot what I could before the rain water could trickle through my fingers. Forgive me if my white balance is a little off.

Waves mounted the curbs. Tide came to the boulevard. Little rivers flowed down the sidewalk. My shoes went for a dip. My jeans weighted my ankles. Water had pooled in the rolled up denim. There might just be a tad bit of motion blur.

Trees argued with the breeze. Leafs fluttered with the thunder. Branches swatted at the night and my video is all the better for it.

Enjoy it with the blinds closed.(since the closed captions are funky, I’ve decided to include the poem too)

Curbside Noir

Waiting for my ride on a curbside in the rain
Something tall and dark, pacing the sidewalk
Going rotten from a gut instinct
Trying to rationalize all the butterflies away
The names, faces, contexts
Predators making passes at my back
I’m sharpening my wit
Just in case I have to stab someone with it

Something’s going to happen I can feel it
Like I’m moving up the slope of a roller coaster
Staring at the ground beyond the tracks
My bones rattling with the tow chain
This is what happens when you let the tension mount
When you don’t know, don’t say what you want
When you stick your head in the lions mouth
Just for a change of scenery

My driver, my waning trust is late
My ulcer and growing fears are all on time
I need to get back to where the tension lives
I need to be done with this
It’s like waiting to throw up
You can taste it climbing up your throat
And that nasty mounting feeling
Is all that you are until you can push it over the edge

There are people that need to be told off
And I can’t get to them yet
Snakes slithering down the branches
Whispering schemes into innocent ears
Turning fear into anger
Desire into entitlement
Kindness into weakness
Vulnerability into malleability

Cars pass in monochrome blurs
Colors canceled out by headlights
Cup my fingers together in the shape of a “C”
Making an umbrella for a fresh cigarette
I’m fine tuning all my bad habits
Seduced by theories that play out like plot twists
Trying so hard to think like someone else
Becoming more and more like myself