Jonathan Hayes

from Dying at the Movies

for my fellow NYC Catholic school boy, Jim Carroll

Eating a Baconator from Wendy’s
watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

—  ketchup everywhere

Some folks like it Raw others well-done

— watching the disappearance of the in-between 

Streaming Sliver on my MacBook

— watching the camera on my screen watch me

In our flat in Oakland, watching Snowpiercer
after reading Rob Wilson’s essay on the film

— not enough money to turn the heat on

Watching Trouble Every Day while mixing a cocktail

—  sex and violence 

Back at home after going to the Korean market
eating homemade ramen and watching Parasite

— subtitles

After watching The Postcard Killings
at the post office postcard stamps are sold out

— they live another day

Watching Okja as the bad guys try to capture the super pig

— its only defense is farting and shitting on them

Sitting in an empty movie theater in Boston 
that reeks of vomit while watching 3-D Parasite 1982

— my stepfather hungover and sleeping in the seat next to me

W/ my mother at Chestnut Hill Cinemas in Boston
not remembering the name of the movie we are watching

— only, the horror of her empty eyes staring through the screen

Watching The Stepfather pour milk into his Rice Krispies
he smiles putting his head down to the cereal bowl listening

— murder for breakfast

1981 watching Sleepaway Camp
w/ my father at a matinee in Manhattan

— questioning my gender

Alone in the Egyptian room 
at the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley watching Total Eclipse

— the mushrooms start to kick in

Watching Play Misty for Me

— Clint Eastwood in tighty-whities and Annabel Lee dead by the sea

Lux Aeterna 
Beatrice and Charlotte watching me

— burn at the stake

Watching The Passenger who’s off to a bang

— w/ no movie grammar

Watching The Omen in Manhattan w/ my father at Loew’s 86th Street Theater

— in the restroom I check for the number of the beast on my head

Haunted by the Terrifier

— watching my wife play in the kitchen w/ a knife 

My flight is booked on a 737 Boeing back to NYC

— watching Asia Argento and her nine lives in Boarding Gate

Ghost Story my first horror film
watching the thunderstorm sex scene

— lightning!

Watching X while it rains outside

— O, Mia Goth and your pudgy nose

Learn more about these poems. And read more poems from this series.

Jonathan Hayes lives in Oakland, California with his wife and their cat on the third floor of an old haunted house. His most recent publication is the chapbook, Purposeful Accident, Holy & Intoxicated Publications, England, 2022.