Michael Boccardo

I, Dorothy

              On August 14th, 1980, Playboy centerfold and actress,
Dorothy Stratten, was shot and killed by her former
agent and ex-husband, Paul Snider, before he turned
the gun on himself. Dorothy was only twenty-years-old.

Before marriage. Before men. Before their aim, always adjusting. Before their lenses, their intentions. Before an eye within an eye within an agenda. Before I was exposed, all gloss & glimmer & spangle. Before hands, his. Before their coarse turn. Before they lit me like a star, a score, the shutter’s eternal ingenue. Before Buck Rogers & Bogdanovich. Before love lowered over my eyes a filter. Before he was triggered. Before I was folded, then spread. Before windows smudged to rust, air swelled into animal. Before honey, the crease of, the pleat. Before the bed. Before his tongue, its rough knot. Before sunflower & clover. Before summers served in bowls of broken stars. Before the barrel undressed each bruise. Before I believed that bare meant truth, target implied focus. Before his eyes, unflinching. Before the shells, their naive logic. Before hands, mine, framing my face. Before the angle, then the fix. Before the shooting. Before the shoot. Before the shot.
 

Michael Boccardo’s poems have appeared in various journals including Kestrel, storySouth, The Inflectionist Review, Screen Door Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Mid-American Review, Iron Horse, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Comstock Review, Nimrod, Cimarron Review, and Best New Poets, as well as the anthologies The Power of the Feminine I: Vol II and Poetry Goes to the Movies. He is a multiple Pushcart Nominee and a finalist for the James Wright Poetry Award. He resides in High Point, NC, with two rambunctious tuxedo cats. Additional work can be found at www.michaelboccardo.com