The First Person with Michael Judge

The First Person with Michael Judge

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The First Person with Michael Judge
The First Person with Michael Judge
Our Favorite Actress
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Our Favorite Actress

A poem for America

Jan 27, 2025
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The First Person with Michael Judge
The First Person with Michael Judge
Our Favorite Actress
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Jeanne Moreau in Louis Malle's 1957 masterpiece Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, Elevator to the Gallows.
Our Favorite Actress 

We are, in a public setting, comforted 
by the lack of expectations

until something awful happens, 
an accident, someone choking

on a peach pit, for example. 
Or worse, something intentional

but entirely unexpected, inappropriate, 
the indiscriminate shooting of passengers

on a train, for example. We get sleepy 
in public. We fall asleep in the audience,

lulled by the comfort of coughs, 
laughter, the crowd breathing in and out.

It all feels so civilized until 
our favorite character, played

by our favorite actress, falls 
face-first into the orchestra pit.

The show continues with no understudy. 
Death grants us a private audience.

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