Vaudevillian Slapstick in Lipstick

" Vaudevillian Slapstick in Lipstick "

by Suzán Jiván

Vaudevillian slapstick in lipstick
intermittently seen as piece offerings
in a sequined dress and high heels
while sitting primly on a balcony
complete with walkie talkies
for refugees as words pop
onto a screen suggestively
like age-old notions of identity
thought to be beleaguering
after an unveiling
unexposed and unmapped
in historical matters
of cantilevered detail
expanding and contracting to scale
with a kind of jet lag on a sprawling
scaffolding of early examples
of unswept hair especially flared
like heirlooms rarely surpassed
by longstanding hallucinatory
drawings of porcelain orbs
As supernatural as stop-action
on a smudgy canvas
of the old-fashioned
heavily impastoed
segments of dance
like mind travel
with ballast
Occasionally dabbling
with the dramatic
out of context
with feminist gestures
hanging
at different levels
compelled
by the contentious
potential
of leaden contenders
being portrayed
as vacuous
praise
like fleeting
creations
of independent
labels
with nothing
except
the legitimacy
of the still image
printed
in millimeters
whisked
without incident
into silent
films...