The Final Scene

In the final scene our hero, realizing that anything is possible,
at last lays down his armor. In the final scene the lonely prostitute
is reunited with her estranged child in a high-end hotel suite in Texas.
In the final scene the villain becomes a friend, the team wins
the championship, the whale is finally found. In the final scene
we see Suge Knight, at the prison phone, showing his mother
the map to the treasure in his chest for the first and only time,
thus awakening our audience to redemption’s always open door.
His mother moans with boundless understanding, pink hand presses
new love against the pane, credits roll to the sweetest song.
The film will leave you tearful, I promise. In the final scene
the director cleverly lays a family of easter eggs for a franchise
of familiar mutants tasked with saving America but beset by grief.
When I kiss you for the final time darling, the room will be silent and unwitting.
No one sees it coming when the cowgirl shoots her horse.
I will try everything, I will beg the rain your name, clap belief alive,
leave the knot tied well and good. A film has ideas of its own.
Long before you I learned the best endings should
inspire hope and cut out quick: just when
she lies in the arms of her beloved, all bare and blind with victory,
finally believing in the peace that only comes at the very end.



©2023 Niall Cunningham