Movie theatres then and now...

In Black and White

The quiet comfort of thick upholstered seats,

a cloistered feeling as lights dim,

ushers with flashlights held low escort late comers

to their seats,

the smell of hot buttered popcorn

in old downtown theatres with

balconies with racoco embellishments,

where tickets are sold from a large roll

by young girls in glassed in wickets

talking through small holes in partitions

causing patrons to bend low

and talk too loud,

then receive change dispensed into

a stainless steel bowl

embedded into the counter top.

The marquis displays one, sometimes two movies

to the street crowds:

“Storm Warning”

and

“The Damned Don’t Cry”

No Dolby sound check, Pano-vision, Techno Colour,

or subliminal seduction, 

before the movie fades to a Black and White

news reel narrated by a disembodied resonating voice

describing world events to a sheltered audience

shocking the world as they hear Hitler has invaded Poland,

tanks face off against cavalry, or the Korean War

begins in the simple world of then served up in Black and White.

Now. 

We walk to our seats on sticky floors coated with years of

soft beverages,

carpeted with super sized buttered popcorn

A giant sized fire breathing dragon in some

mythical Silver City

over sees the sale of thirteen dollar tickets

far away from my simple world of Black and White

with sub titles and a 

little

white

bouncing

ball.