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13 Ways of Looking at Gene Wilder
(sorry, W.S. -- I said I was sorry)
by M. Sweeney Lawless
1
Among twenty white coats,
The only still thing
Was the scalpel in the thigh.
2
I was of two minds,
Like Gene Wilder
It was Rhinoceros, but it was
also Zero Mostel.
3
The hair frizzled into a nimbus.
It was a premature equator of a part.
4
Gilda Radner
The Woman in Red.
Karen Wilder
See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
5
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of the mystery
Or the beauty of the appearance,
Willie Wonka limping
Or just after.
6
Partners Forever.
7
These are simple farmers.
These are people of the land.
The common clay of the New West.
You know, morons.
8
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
We bad uh-huh.
We bad.
9
When the elevator smashed
through the roof,
It flew over the projection
Of London.
10
At the sight of her fiancé
In the huffing steam of the station,
Tafeta, darling
It wrinkles so easily.
11
He rode across the country
Coach.
Once, the compartment jarred him,
And he mistook
The mustachioed sleeper
For his wife.
12
The undertaker's car is moving.
Clyde must be driving.
13
He became Gene Wilder.
Because Jerry Silberman
Could not play Hamlet.
Then Gene Wilder
Could not play Hamlet.
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