Everything

Perhaps it was better
when it was understood and clear
that the gods hated not just us
but each other too

but the days have turned into the past
and the fear and pity
of tragedy
have shifted slightly

the way gasses in the belly of some decomposing beast
cause it to shift and roll as though in sleep
so that you ask yourself
"why is that horse waving at me?"
before you realize it is lying on its back
in a field
with all four hooves in the air

so it's a matter of horror,
of fear and rage,
and the question becomes not
why do evil?
but rather, why does evil exist to be done?

or to be more specific
I am a person who does not favour bangs,
and yet, I have bangs!
did the stylist hate me,
or are bangs
and their accelerated immediacy
the true ill?
and the junior stylist,
there cutting my hair because my regular was busy with highlights,
and the receptionist who shuffled the appointment:
do they and their friends
make up an axis of evil?
and, like Macbeth, or George W.,
will I have to kill them all?

"...an astoundingly long uninterrupted take. Needs to be seen by more people!"
- Lester Alfonso

"Everything, a wonderful short by director Michael Caines - the video portrays Janette Platana performing her phenomenal poem of the same name, split-screened to humourous, puzzling images of Americana and childhood."
- Xtra, October 26, 2006

"... a funny and terrifying romp through celebrity culture (watch for references to Buster Keaton, especially), bombed repeatedly by missiles from the poetic canon -- Shakespeare, Blake, Plath, Stevens, Sexton -- and that crazy, pimping joker of the Pentateuch, Yaweh. Platana would be hilarious even if she weren't so smart and scary.... Soundtrack by Glenn Miller. Caines has the painter's eye for visual poetry."
- This Week, November 2006

"Everything tempers murderous commentary with the banal physicalities of domestic living to hilarious effect. The words and the movement conspire to deliver a pointed political message of supreme fed-upness, with occasional forays into the more benign bitchiness that modern living inspires. I can so relate."
- Kathleen M. Smith, Artistic Director, Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video

"Oh, Janette, lighten up."
- Keith Cole, October 2006

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