They Call It Fame

 

“The fame thing isn't really real… you know…Don't forget …I'm also just a girl… standing in front of a boy… asking him to love her.”  Julia Roberts (as Anna Scott in Notting Hill)

A pseudo-panorama,

On the tainted panes

Of my white limousine,

The mutant flashes

Of thousands flashbulbs

Engaged in a bedazzled seizure

Of my synthetic effigy,

Through the night’s curtains

I see the scuffling torsos

Of Jurassic shadows,

The catcalls and yelps calling,

Garbled variants of my name

Coalesce in the exhaled air,

Like a frosty slush inundating

Ruins of the wraith town,

They clamor in tiny streams

For the last piece of molded cheese.

They call it

Fame.

In parallel chronologies,

When I gag in taffeta pillows

And purging in crystal lights,

I tell stories

Of a lost fable.

Once upon a time,

Camouflaged in the folds,

There lay a sculpture

Drawing cryptic contours

Around my navel ring.

As I saw the coy smile fading,

The stolid face

In a luminescence of shadows,

Your construed truths,

Mumbles of constrained space,

Soaring ambitions and antagonistic lives,

There were few beats

Of my plummeting heart

That knew what was coming.

It was over.

Sooner than the flicker of fireflies.

But there were leftovers,

A melanin residue,

He called it

Fame.

Author's Note

This is one of the spontaneous pieces I wrote. I was watching Notting Hill a few days back… and there was this scene of Julia Roberts coming back to Hugh Grant in a humble submission only to be rejected probably because the protagonist, Anna Scott( played by Roberts) was famous and the people( in the film) lead unequal lives. That was perhaps one of the ‘it’ moments of the cinematic wonders I had watched. I remembered one of the interviews given by one of the leading Indian actress who I remember telling that Fame is like the flame of a lamp- it lights up the room it is in, but beneath the flame there is darkness.

Reviews

[Empirik]

Interesting take on fame. Never heard this way before. I liked it, but it was dark. As the night falls and we search for one last breath to be seen by others it gets absorbed in the wind of today and surrounds the grey mist-like-fog coming towards you.There's no mistake. You are seen, and they call that fame too. Nice! :)

[Mauricio Montoya]

Great combination of words that blend right in as I read and absorb in thought to what has been wrote.
Excellent write.

[TPK Stories]

Great write...you captured fame in its essence....

[Sakshi]

You have a very good hold on your vocabulary. The ability to splash a writing with more than 300 words, and a piece like this with I think less than 200 words. A very controlled writer, you know where to let your pen's ink flow and where to put a full stop!
Love this one, and the one about judging people! both have different styles.
Commendable work! Looking forward to read more of you!
Hitting the share button too :)

[Pratik]

Thank you Sakshi.. Glad you liked it :)

[Pratik]

You can check out my new poem 'Retrouvailles. It's something new that I have tried.

[Sakshi]

I just read it... I generally start from history and work my way to present n latest!!
Its amazing! I was literally stumped... I had a story and plot built in my head, in the starting few lines, after that I am taken back to past with marriage and airport and tiara...and BAM back to the voice of elevator! Indeed a spectacular piece of writing!

[Pratik]

Thank you... actually that wasn't the voice of the elevator. i wrote it as the boy making a pass at the girl at the party... But its ok if you interpret it that way :)

[dukovan]

The two parrallels work nicely. The same individual from the perspectives of the fans or media, switching over to the famous ones perspective. They just know he is here, he knows how he got there.
cool write.

[Pratik]

Thank you! Glad you liked it :)

[Becky C Strukamp]

You have portrayed your vision well here ...I love it! Excellent analogy!

[*~*Butterfly Kisses*~*]

I loved this, very clever and creative. I almost feel sorry for these people and often wonder how they aren't blinded by all those flashes from the cameras. But I remember money buys them pretty much anything. hmm.

Nicely done!

[sharrondark]

This is the poem of some celebrities lives because they have to really screen people to see if they like them for fame, fortune or a true friend.
A lot of them are on the defensive side because of jealousy and hatred.
This is my perception of your poem and stars lives.

[Droll Prole]

You have described vividly the ups and downs of fame so well, I don't envy those that choose to let themselves be at its mercy. Love your command of vocabulary too.

[Kenneth The Poet]

Nice write. Speaks volumes.