JAMES DEAN WITH PIG Dennis Stock, “Life” magazine even without the image you can see it. dean, black booted, bedroom-eyed hair coiffed into its iconic pompadour. he holds a hat turned up to the sky. sty littered with corn husks. big animal standing beside him. i’ve never seen his films but know his shape. his name performs the work of looking. this photo taken on a trip back home to the family farm in indy. what life might have been had he not sought the spotlight. [ the apocrypha i love best, about his affair with brando. sub & dominus. god & pig. they met on a set. dean so loved him he held him up like a father & brando did what he wanted, put out cigarettes on the boy, used a belt. ] this photo’s taken in 1955 & it’s unclear whether he carries the terror & pleasure to come or if it’s waiting somewhere beyond the lens. if he returned to the farm knowing or if he returned to the farm known. now both are dead— one leaves behind films, the other only meat & children, who perhaps you, dear reader, have eaten & in that eating took pleasure. (sam sax)
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What a fabulous poem. Thank you.