That’s Showbiz
by Paul Illidge (December 2024)
I’m dreaming of a white
Christmas on the road to
A desert golf course
Riding some would-be camel
With a pharaoh-like partner
Behind me crooning
That his love is buried deep
In a false woman’s heart
When
_______________________Bing!
Up ahead there’s a mirage
An oasis flickering and
Shimmering
And Charlton Heston with
His hair parted down the middle
Like the Red Sea
Is dancing kind of funny
With a cute Cleopatra
Who could pass for Elizabeth
Taylor anywhere
–
The music is ancient
The hieroglyphics are real
A thirsty extra in plus-fours
Pipe between his teeth
Sidles up to our caravan and
requests permission to play through
–
_______________________Cut!
Yells the director
So I return to wardrobe
Feeling a strange and confusing
Excitement that somehow
I lived a long time ago
In a kingdom history has
All but forgotten
Where the high priests of comedy
Performed nightly for crowds
Of wildly appreciative pyramid- builders
–
Paul Illidge’s most recent book is the true crime financial thriller RSKY BZNS (New English Review Press, 2022), a “fascinating story” (Frank Abagnale, Jr., author of Catch Me if You Can), a “gripping and intricate read” (Conrad Black). His book THE BLEAKS (ECW Press), was a Globe & Mail Best Book of 2014. Books in his Shakespeare Novels series Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, are all available internationally at www.kobobooks.com
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