Back There in the Dark: A Cinema Poem by Sam Sewell-Peterson
Back There in the Dark
You’ve been quiet for too long now
Temple to dreams and imagination
Empty seats and deserted isles
We’ve not forgotten our big screen infatuation
Rustling in packets and shifting in seats
Community, belonging and a shared experience
Dawdling late-comers, whisperers and mid-film phone-flashers
Even the worst audience reminds us of our fragile human transience
The trailers are a necessary concession
Will you see one film next month or five?
You don’t mind so much teasing a movie
But cool it with all the ads for cars you won’t drive
After a moment the lights snuff out
The universe seems to pause, taking a breath
The void envelops all
Capture this moment and it would be a beautiful death.
The screen holds a magic all its own
Spellbinding, time-stopping and luminescent
Your only connection to the outside world
Is the vaguest awareness of the person sitting adjacent
Heroes clash and families squabble
Vast alien worlds and pokey apartments alike projected humongous
Whatever the scale of the story being told
It’s always about what it means to be us
An hour-and-a-half passes in a blink
Maybe two, perhaps three
Before you know it the spell is broken
You emerge from the darkness dazed and smiling with glee
That is unless it was a bad film you saw
Time wasted and patience tried
But ultimately any cinema trip is better than none
It’s a social experience, not something to abide
The post-film discussion is next
Breathless, earnest and true
Out into the foyer we all spill
Hold that thought while I nip to the loo
That wasn’t as good as I expected
What film were you watching? I was grinning ear-to-ear
I guess we’ll agree to disagree
Won’t be making my top ten end of the year
Then homeward we drift
Part of us left back there in the dark
Already pining for the next time
We can visit that realm so vivid and stark
So gather the film faithful and march
Through those doors and sit down
Spread the word that cinemas are back
I’m crying so much I could drown!
