The James Bond Movie

By May Swenson 1913–1989 May Swenson

The popcorn is greasy, and I forgot to bring a Kleenex.

A pill that’s a bomb inside the stomach of a man inside

The Embassy blows up. Eructations of flame, luxurious

cauliflowers giganticize into motion. The entire 29-ft.

screen is orange, is crackling flesh and brick bursting,

blackening, smithereened. I unwrap a Dentyne and, while

jouncing my teeth in rubber tongue-smarting clove, try

with the 2-inch-wide paper to blot butter off my fingers.

A bubble-bath, room-sized, in which 14 girls, delectable

and sexless, twist-topped Creamy Freezes (their blond,

red, brown, pinkish, lavendar or silver wiglets all

screwed that high, and varnished), scrub-tickle a lone

male, whose chest has just the right amount and distribu-

tion of curly hair. He’s nervously pretending to defend

his modesty. His crotch, below the waterline, is also

below the frame—but unsubmerged all 28 slick foamy boobs.

Their makeup fails to let the girls look naked. Caterpil-

lar lashes, black and thick, lush lips glossed pink like

the gum I pop and chew, contact lenses on the eyes that are

mostly blue, they’re nose-perfect replicas of each other.

I’ve got most of the grease off and onto this little square

of paper. I’m folding it now, making creases with my nails.

May Swenson, “The James Bond Movie” from New and Selected Things Taking Place (Boston: Atlantic/Little Brown, 1978). Copyright © 1978 by May Swenson. Reprinted with the permission of The Literary Estate of May Swenson.

Source: New and Selected Things Taking Place (Little Brown and Company, 1978)

Biography

During her prolific career, May Swenson received numerous literary awards and nominations for her poetry. Often experimental in both form and appearance, her poems earned her widespread critical acclaim. As Priscilla Long commented in the Women's Review of Books, "Swenson was a visionary poet, a prodigious observer of the fragile and miraculous natural world."

Swenson's poetry has been praised for its imagery, which is . . .

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