Ape Girl
For
Jessica Lange
Minnesota maiden,
she's got monkey-hot veins.
Bolts for Paris, collides
with ballet
boys, poses for Paco. Breaks
off and relevés to stardom, palm up, up,
rises beyond a king, critics, postmen
and all that jazz. Star! Blonde
femme fatale, she guns
for Cora, Frances, Patsy. Killing
the competition she never wanted.
Later, comes Cape Fear,
Country, the FHA. Blanche. Blue
Sky flies. She's got craft, art. War
hits home. She fights, speaks
out. Backlash! The right wing
smacks the primate princess
who has since left the giant
apes behind to seduce Shakespeare,
Chekhov and Tennessee,
their lovelorn Queen.
David-Matthew Barnes' stage plays have been performed in three
languages in seven countries. His film credits include Why So Fly?, a
documentary featuring the female hip-hop trio Northern State and
Frozen Stars, a Latin-flavored coming of age film. The winner of
numerous awards for his writing, including the 2008
World AIDS Day
Writing Contest and the 2007 Carrie McCray
Literary Award, Barnes has
published widely, working in poetry, playwriting and fiction. His
latest projects include the poetry collection,
Roadside Attractions
and The Common Bond, a literary suspense novel. He received his MFA in
creative writing from Queens
University of Charlotte in
North
Carolina. For more info visit www.davidmatthewbarnes.com.