A few months ago, I was asked to participate in a project with D&AD, headquartered in London. The project was called The Story Works. A group of writers from around the world were asked to select a film, play, book, movie or advertisement that worked and show how the story worked. My choice was Robert Frank’s The Americans. I decided to choose ten photographs and write an 83 word prose / poem about how the story worked. Here’s one below.
Parade, Hoboken NJ
Who sang out of their windows in despair
It was Kline, DeKooning, Ginsberg who flew your freedom flag.
Those stars, them stripes.
That goddamn flag everywhere.
There’s your 1950s cold war right there.
From Walker Evans’ shoulders
oh say you could see
the dark side of America’s fable.
Look, your pictures say.
Would you look at them.
The forgotten and misbegotten,
everywhere I look,
hiding in plain sight.
Your America —
a whole different scene,
a saloon too strange,
only you
could bear witness.
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