Hitchcockian

a film ekphrasis: Rear Window, by Alfred Hitchcock, 1954

Rear Window movie poster: Jeff (James Stewart) with his binoculars suspects a murder has taken place in one of the apartments he can see into.

View from the ‘rear’ window of Jeff’s apartment, the newlyweds to the far left, the concert pianist on the right, others between, including prime suspect, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr). That looks like him kneeling in the garden, up to no good.

rear window 

“We’ve become a race of peeping Toms. What people oughta do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.” -Stella (Thelma Ritter), a nurse tending to Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

I step out 
into the heat 
   Hitchcockian
am a mobile 
rear window
without the chair 
the telephoto eye
the vertical neighbours  

just a swivel 
of the head
does it 
for a glimpse 
through the glass 

down my street
the glass today
is a ‘pitcher’ window 
spilling life 
knuckleballing it 
to my more 
natural eye 

what do I see: 
fill in the blank 
with yours: all 
you need do 
is open up
your curtains
and look 

to know yourself 
the proximate valence 
of things within 
   and from  
the frame
   say:

one Grace Kelly 
aglow with all
the availability of  
availed light . . . 

the deep-tissue glare
and touch of a Thelma
visiting . . . 
 
or another
Raymond Burr
smouldering 
   smouldering
in the dark . . . 

Lisa (Grace Kelly) turning on the light & Thorwald (Raymond Burr) smoking in the dark