“Spielberg in Poland” by Dan Grossman

Spielberg in Poland

Tonight he sits in his rented Cracow house
with Jurassic Park clips 
direct from the states on his satellite link-up.
Today, on the Schindler set,
he told the Polish extras to strip for the scenes
at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Today he wept, self-consciously, like a French auteur.
The camera was scoping
the naked women as they stood in the showers.

It’s 11:00 p.m. Both films are playing in his head
in their rough form 
and as they will soon be. For Schindler, for the sake
of cinema verité
he traded state of the art equipment and technique
for black and white film 
and hand-held cameras. As his own editor, however,
his M.O. remains constant.

Both the Auschwitz train and the velociraptors
must run smoothly into their own storylines.
It’s 11:00 p.m. The streets are quiet. Next door
no one dreams in Yiddish 
as Tyrannosaurus Rex breaks Velociraptor’s neck 
between his jaws.  
Spielberg dozes off. He must shoot tomorrow
at dawn’s first light.

published previously in pLopLop