Cameo Appearance

I've mentioned Chales Simic before in my blog as one of the poets that I'm working with for my thesis. Well This is one of the poems I'm working on. And for those of you who don't know, Simic recently was named Poet Laureate.

Cameo Appearance
by Charles Simic

I had a small, nonspeaking part
In a bloody epic. I was one of the
Bombed and fleeing humanity.
In the distance our great leader
Crowed like a rooster from a balcony,
Or was it a great actor
Impersonating our great leader?

That’s me there, I said to the kiddies.
I’m squeezed between the man
With two bandaged hands raised
And the old woman with her mouth open
As if she were showing us a tooth

That hurts badly. The hundred times
I rewound the tape, not once
Could they catch sight of me
In the huge gray crowd,
That was like any other crowd.

Trot off to bed, I said finally.
I know I was there. One take
Is all they had time for.
We ran, and the planes grazed our hair,
An then they were no more
As we stood dazed in the burning city,
But, of course, they didn’t film that.