Michael Brockley

Blue Velvet Night Moves
 
“You’ll probably see someone you know on Heartattack and Vine,” Tom Wait
 

A woman with a trunkful of loot steers Jayne Mansfield’s convertible along the lost highways between Hollywoodland and Malibu while prowling for a sixty-minute man who’ll do anything but work. She leaves a pair of red shoes by the drugstore and has dropped a Big Heat matchbook by a rear window in a streetcar named Desire. A red herring for the blues from the Rapunzel of lonely places. It’s the night of the hunter in a country missing zero-to-hero men. The time for untuned pianos to ask how wrong a good man can be. 
 
Across the A-Train tracks on Sin City’s scarlet streets, the Black Swan fingers the wrong man over a naked lunch of alligator meat quenched with a touch of evil bourbon. She’ll leave at midnight with Candy for the low side of the road. It’s a rare and reckless moment for a grifter’s state of grace. The Devil in a Blue Dress and Angel Heart creep through Nightmare Alley, wrestling the Black Dahlia into the trunk of their Fleetwood after tossing four deuces into Lebowski’s saxophone bell. One of them keeps an ace in the hole, but the henchman is short a joker. It’s the night of the hunter. Ain’t nobody’s business who rides the elevator to the gallows while the city sleeps. 
 
The postman always rings twice at the corner where Mulholland Drive double-crosses Sunset Boulevard. Wild tales run amok of car chases through a foggy night in Chinatown, and of Oldboy, or a caped insomniac, lurking in the shadow of a woman in a window. Too many Maltese falcons have emerged from out of the past. It’s an adagio night. A six-hour midnight played in a minor key. Behind the “Closed” sign above the entrance to the House of Bamboo, a “Taxi Driver Blues” solo detours into “The Ghost of Love.” When the man who knows too much begins his journey into fear, the Black Widow brags to her consigliere about how the night of the hunter guarantees the sweet smell of success.  
 

Bio: Michael Brockley is a retired school psychologist who lives in Muncie, Indiana where he is looking for a dog to adopt. His poems have appeared in Down in the Dirt, Of Rust and Glass, and Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan. Poems are forthcoming in Lost Pilots Lit and Riddled with Arrows. 

Credits for Cento: Blue Velvet Night Moves
 
Blue Velvet
Night Moves
“Heartattack and Vine,” Tom Wait
“A Gal with a Whole Lot of Loot,” The J Street Jumpers
Jayne Mansfield’s Car
Lost Highways
Hollywoodland
“Malibu Chase,” Elmer Bernstein 
The Prowler
“Sixty-Minute Man,” Billy Ward and His Dominoes
“I’ll Do Anything But Work,” Ray Charles
“Red Shoes by the Drugstore,” Tom Waits
Big Heat
Rear Window
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Lonely Place
The Night of the Hunter
“Hero to Zero,” Duke Ellington
“How Wrong Can a Good Man Be,” Percy Mayfield
“Take the A Train,”
Sin City
Scarlet Streets
Black Swan
The Wrong Man
The Naked Lunch
“Alligator Meat,” Joe Swift and Johnny Otis Band
A Touch of Evil
“Round Midnight,”
“Skip Leaves with Candy,”
“The Low Side of the Road,”
The Reckless Moment
The Grifters
State of Grace
Devil in a Blue Dress
Angel Heart
Nightmare Alley
Black Dahlia
“Four Deuces,” Alex North
The Big Lebowski
Ace in the Hole
“Ain’t Nobody’s Business,” Billie Holiday
“Elevator to the Gallows,” Miles Davis
While the City Sleeps 
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Mulholland Drive 
77 Sunset Boulevard
“On a Foggy Night,” Tom Waits
Chinatown
Oldboy
Insomnia
The Woman in the Window
The Maltese Falcon
Out of the Past
House of Bamboo
“Taxi Driver Blues,” Bernard Herrmann
Detour
“The Ghost of Love,” David Lynch
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Journey into Fear
Black Widow
The Sweet Smell of Success