V.

 

NANA MEETS A FRIEND.

NANA’S WELCOMED BY A FRIEND.

 

 

 

Nana meets a woman

alone, it’s a friend, it’s

Claudine, she’s alone

with two children, she

initially didn’t choose

to be alone, then she did.

I have a job. I have a coat.

I drink white wine. I work

as a prostitute. Each woman

on her own has only one man,

handsome, strong, who drinks coffee

who generally doesn’t work.

Claudine says that Nana is free. Freely

happy, freely unhappy, it’s a

choice. I’m free to give myself,

it’s a freedom that’s not given.

It’s the law, it’s changed, but

it’s the law. It’s the job

one seeks, one takes,

one gives, one is.

The camera too gets free,

it rises from the table, gets

into the car, takes its tracking shot,

starts to follow the pavement.

Nana’s gone. Then

onscreen we see nothing but her.

Someone looks backward

Because one is free, in cinema,

to turn to look where one wants,

to rest the eyes where no body is.

The look lingers in front of a movie

house where

smartly revived,

Jules et Jim is playing.

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