Gene McCormick- Poem & Art

Venetian Blinds

Flimsy metal Venetian blind strips

can be grabbed and pulled down,

or apart, to see outside without using

the drawstring to properly open the blinds,

rash action not possible when they are                 

made of sturdy wooden slats.

Oak-stained wooden slats added panache

to Frank Capra’s luxury cottage suite

in Napa Valley where the writer-producer-director,

an Academy Award-winner when

many movies were black and white,

locked himself in seclusion to finish

the script for It’s A Wonderful Life.

Late afternoon California sun through

the open-slatted Venetian blinds in the

resort cottage creates a noir pattern

of black and white strips along the floor,

bending up the side wall

in the nook area at the rear

of the resort cottage.

Not a grid; parallel lines.

A person could spend hours opening

and closing the Venetian blinds

just to hear them clack.

Sturdy well-engineered and designed 

oak-stained Venetian blinds are made

of the finest materials and such repeated

use won’t damage them.

It’s A Wonderful Life was nominated for

five Academy Awards. It won one.

Brief Bio: Gene McCormick likes to look through

other people’s Venetian blinds.