Turns out I’ve still got a dream to meet Tom Cruise. Don’t laugh! We must all have someone who’s famous that we want to meet – and the want is a little deeper than usual. For some reason, when prompted to use words that writers loved and shared via chat, visions of Tom whirled in my head like giddy child laughter. The words, so you know, were: magnolia, luminous, erotic, potential, tower, and muffin. Perhaps it was the word magnolia that pulled up images of Tom in the role a lifetime – enter Frank ‘T.J’ Mackey in my movie mind. I’m not going to read too much more into this. The words ignited a poem, as they do. *Note* There are some vulgarities in the poem.
Tom Cruise with long greasy hair
pulled back in a half pony
ten o’clock shadow ripening on his face
that silly microphone like the ones
desperate 1990s female pop stars wore
straddling his sweaty cheek
ironic? maybe
Tom Cruise with muscles popping
spotlight on his wild-eyed plea for men
to ‘respect the cock’ – a veritable
rooster rage for damaged dudes
Tom Cruise blooming blissfully inside a magnolia
poisonous beauty unleashing a character
I’d not seen in his garden before
my feminist tower toppled
my muffin a luminous furnace
the erotic exposure of Cruise as
masterful masculine mother fucker
delicious degrading demi-god
ego engorged excrement
it was outstanding
Tom Cruise out of the sky slapping his hands
on a hotel conference room fake stage
who knew he had such potential?
then in luscious character arc
sob-weeping at the side of his
dying father’s bed – vicious vulnerability
Tom Cruise with a beer-belly
Tom Cruise with fat hands
Tom Cruise with balding scalp
Tom Cruise in a wheelchair
Tom Cruise in a race car
Tom Cruise breaking bones and
high-falutin scientology leadership
Tom Cruise jumping on a couch
Tom Cruise running and running and running
He had me at ‘we were inverted’
(okay, before that even)
Tom Cruise in the making-of documentary
for Vanilla Sky – awkward needy
in a sea of blazing frilly-skirted women
in confident tango
When he married K
I thought…huh
he married every young woman
with devotional drooling capabilities
I thought…huh
he mustn’t have gotten my letter
I thought…huh
what is wrong with me?
Tom Cruise with long greasy hair
pulled back in a half pony
nearly naked in an interview
with a no-nonsense woman
his laugh
his laugh
It’s Wednesday. The air smells like freshly cut grass, moist soil, ripening spring. I’m feeling steady.
Yesterday…was doily-ed with anxiety. I took a hot bath at 3:45pm to help calm my nerves. I wonder if it was because I didn’t write first thing?! I did write two poems though, and otherwise it was quite a productive day. I don’t know…my body was an anxiety bag.
But here’s a new day! Here’s Tom Cruise on my mind! Do you really think that one day I could meet him? Dreamers be dreamin’.
Be kind. Be gentle. Spread love.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 