Some soft-muscled kid,
sand kicked in his face,
grows up to write movies
where the tough guys lose.
Late night, soft-white GE light
shines down on his battle-page,
him cast as the victor,
shattering the myth
that girls only like the jocks.
Red blood ink spills from the pen,
his sword
as he lops off the head
of some bar-belled body built,
clean-cut Adonis.
His night is productive,
as he wins another round,
another scene,
and the morning finds him
slumped over his work,
the green gleam on his phone machine
calling him to arms again.
G. M. Lupo (ISNI: 0000 0005 0315 9196) is a native of Atlanta, Georgia where he has always had a dysfunctional relationship with his hometown. His most recent published work is the story collection Reconstruction (2020), part of his series of Atlanta Stories, which includes Fables of the New South (2017). Along with his novel, Rebecca, Too (2018), and his full-length play Another Mother, these constitute his Expanded Universe of Fictional Atlanta. He has also released a collection of essays, poetry, and stories entitled Words Words Words (2020).
He was the winner of the 2017 Essential Theatre Play Writing Award for Another Mother which had its world premiere in his home neighborhood of West End in August 2017, in the building that once housed the library where he learned to read as a child.
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