"I have yet to find my dream girl,"
says the seventy seven year old bakushi
his face unattractive, his voice wheezing
up there on the big screen
in "Bakushi"

I watch with ninety others
in a small theatre
dark and crowded
mesmerized, titillated
aroused, amused, touched

"I hope," he continues slowly
"I hope every time I go to
the new set that the model
I tie today will be my dream girl
and that hope keeps me coming back
even though I feel like a bakushi
robot. Someday they will make a
bakushi robot and then
no one will need us any longer."

The audience laughs as he boasts
that it was his skill that
brought that girl
to a pinnacle of
feeling and caused
her to throw herself
from that height

they laugh because he seems
so full of ego
and perhaps because they think
he exaggerates, this small unattractive
elderly man up there on the screen

but as I watch the "model's" faces
I do not laugh, no
because I see what he sees
and what he has given them

when he mentions this dream girl
this girl he hopes to one day find
a surprise on a set
unexpected
my eyes water and I must
wipe them, dab at them
keep them from spilling over
because I can feel the
fervency in that wish and
I hope he manages to find that dream
while he still has enough
time to enjoy it

don't we all dream
of that perfect girl?

10/21/2007

Author's Note: The term "bakushi" or "rope master" is used to describe Japanese rope bondage artists who have practiced their craft a long time. I was privileged to be able to attend a screening of a documentary film with that title last night.

Posted on 10/21/2007
Copyright © 2024 Gira Bryant