Dark Blood what a way to die - seizures on the sidewalk on a dark Halloween night you wanted to escape the tinsel people the sick and the hungry to fill the emptiness: heroin, LSD, cocaine, marijuana, valium... whatever you need within arms reach, who could save you when your insides are like a dead crab picked over by gulls and there is not enough substance Joanne Fisher Originally published in JAAM 12
I haven’t had much time to write lately so I’m falling back on an old poem. When I put my first collection together I didn’t include this poem as I felt it was too weak. Revisiting (and giving it a rewrite) makes me wonder it was better than I thought at the time.
When I wrote this I had just read a biography of the actor River Phoenix who died on October 31, 1993. At the time he was working on the film Dark Blood. They had just shot the exterior parts of the film in the desert and then come back to Hollywood to shoot the interior scenes in a studio. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Phoenix went on a drugs binge that led to his death and the film was never completed. The director George Sluizer ended up releasing the film in 2012. He narrated the parts that never got shot, and having seen it recently, you do get a sense of what was lost. It would have been a very intriguing film had it been shot in it’s entirety and it touches on some very dark themes, which probably didn’t help Phoenix at the time. The list of drugs in the poem is what was found in Phoenix’s bloodstream after his death. I find it sad when obviously talented people throw away their lives needlessly.
On an unrelated note my blood is a rather dark colour similar to the colour above, just so you know…
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Β©οΈ2021 Joanne Fisher
Wow, uber dark…
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Interesting timing of his death! Jesus. Passers-by would think you’re acting up for Halloween perhaps.
Are you implying your blood is darker than usual? π€
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No, people have different shades of blood. Mine’s dark, but on the typical spectrum of blood colour.
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I didn’t know that! That’s interesting. So there’s more than one way to make a realistic blood colour. Appropriate that yours should be on the darker endβ¦haha!
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I hate to repeat myself but you were quite the poet.
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A “dark” poem, Joanne. I’m glad you reworked it an shared it. It’s gripping.The inspiration behind it was sad, and I agree about the wasted potential. π¦
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