The Big Sleep – Matt Pitt

The Big Sleep

Everyone smokes and the smoke never gets
in your eyes. The music bebops and swings.
The girls wear tweed. The boys wear trilby hats.
Buildings are big, bold Art Deco-y things.
I get up late. Pack a Colt. Ride the Olds
to somewhere nicely lit. I drink a shot,
crack wise with the barman, punch a guy cold,
then snarl and slouch through the rest of the plot . . .
Of course, you’re not there. I do this alone.
But if sometimes in my bachelor pad,
I pour a scotch, plug in the gramophone
and dream about the life we never had,
well, sister, that’s the price I have to pay
for solving the clues and saving the day.

…

Matt Pitt is a poet and screenwriter from Brighton. He has published in Acumen, Ambit, London Magazine, Prole and Under the Radar. His second feature film, Man of Sorrows, begins shooting in 2021.