Katiy Heath ~ Cinema Kids

What I tell him is this—let’s shoot a film / not a seri­ous fea­ture / but a movie you make with your friends / no stunts or dia­logue / only us / goof­ing off / draw­ing in dirt / paint­ing white cir­cles with mops / clap­ping / high above our heads / loud­er / count­ing the echoes of our hands / like babes who don’t know what city means yet / two young car­go ships honk­ing near an emp­ty lot / because this is the ear­ly ’70s and we don’t need per­mis­sion / to play in aban­doned fields / indus­tri­al areas rein­hab­it­ed by birds / pigeons against the wind / honk­ing / geese / honk­ing / car­go / a white bulk car­ri­er / honk­ing for eigh­teen min­utes / he says I need a point of view / typ­i­cal him /the sib­ling who grew up first / And I, the rock dove novice to the sky / defe­cat­ing / on his red and green French noir posters / show me, he says, so I do / out­side / near grass / nature as prop / cars honk / red and green and blue sedans / I start by shak­ing bits of grav­el from my shoe / the near­by cars shout / four door vehi­cles honk­ing, honk­ing, honk­ing / my black can­vas sneak­er shak­ing, shak­ing, shak­ing / until final­ly / he shoves sticks in his trousers / even does a lit­tle dance / I clap my hands with the traf­fic / echo!—echo!—echo!—echo!—then ask, how about this?
~
Katiy Heath is an essay­ist from Saint Joseph, Missouri. Her writ­ing has appeared in Joyland, Catapult, HAD, LIT, among oth­ers, and has been sup­port­ed by Millay Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), and NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she also worked as the Managing Editor of the program’s lit­er­ary jour­nal, LUMINA. For more, vis­it her web­site at keheath.com.