SHOCKing Sonnets: Showering with PSYCHO

Our resident poet Nigel Parkin delivers another paralyzing poem.

I – Driving Into the Shower

Her hands tighten on the wheel as the world

Closes in, cars looming, headlights reaching

Into the descending night to expose

Her shame. Her face is held in close up for

Our judgement as we follow the trial

In her thoughts, the parade of witnesses

Condemning her in the fevered voices

Of her own mind. She must get out of this.

Now the rain begins to fall, a shower

Through which the harsh lights of cars attack her.

As she peers through her screen she does not know

She’s watching the film of her destiny.

She sees the sign BATES MOTEL – VACANCY

But she cannot read it. She thinks she’s safe.

II – Stepping Into the Shower

She shuts the door, slips off her gown, steps in,

Draws the curtain, her nakedness teasing

Us behind the plastic film. She unwraps

The soap and holds it out, an offering,

Giving herself to the water, turning,

Turning, hands clasped, eyes closed, as if in prayer.

For a moment she is Falconetti

Prepared for Passion, for epiphany.

In the frame now we see her destiny –

The approaching shadow, the illusion

Of car headlights shining through the curtain

In the center of the screen – time and fate

Colliding in this film of rain and steam.

Our mouths open in horror. The strings scream.