#72

in DREAM POP

I think I really need a safe nest egg, but is empty-nest syndrome really in my future? I went back to form wanting volume 3 to end with a villanelle for numbers. It has six stanzas, and the first five consist of three lines each. Who better to end my fire obsessions with than the charismatic, Leslie Uggams alongside Caroll Spinney?

& There are, of course, three other main reasons for the form. The first reason is this episode features the Muppet, Lew Zealand, and his notorious boomerang fish throwing act. So silly, right? Well in my eyes I saw it as a subversive way of referring to relationships. If you throw some one away, instinctually that person will come back to you, wanting your validation even more. I’ve been tossed aside, and sure enough, I always come back. Leslie Uggams was in the movie Deadpool, which was a film connection I shared with someone, but we ended up breaking up on Christmas Eve. Still healing, not only did I want to address the aforementioned aspect, but in the end, I was accused of being an online "stalker." That word is derogatory, but I admit it, I did snoop, because there was no transparency with him, and I have trust issues. Writing this poem was healing for me, but this brings me to the second reason why I found the villanelle to work. The returning lines have an obsessive energy, which is how I would describe going back again and again down the rabbit hole of social media "investigating." Third, but not least, since the lines do return, it was thirdly perfect because in this episode Leslie Uggams sings Dolly Parton’s song, “Here You Come Again.” “Here You Come Again” is Dolly’s opening song to her album of the same name. Another song on the album, “God’s Coloring Book,” was too good not to include in this piece.

& A ruff is the name of a certain type of bird, but it was chosen based on its Elizabethean and Jacobian origin as the name of the costume collar worn by Lew Zealand. Ruff.

& The opening number to this episode is of Leslie Uggams in a red sequins number singing “Hello Goodtimes,” with the big manly Muppet monsters. The song is from the musical I Love My Wife. The musical is about two couples who decided to have a foursome. Another song from the show is “By Threes,” and another song is “Lovers on Christmas Eve,” because that’s the day the events of the musical take place.

& In this episode, Muppet Labs is testing Fireproof Paper! The more I thought of it I realized, what pages are fireproof? Right, web pages, secured, of course, by network firewalls.

& The closing number to this episode has Big Bird and Leslie singing “Love Will Keep Us Together.” It is a throwback to a number the Henson team did before The Muppet Show on The Ed Sullivan Show in December of ’69. They updated it to make it more sexual, and it ends with keeping love together by Big Bird putting a collar around Leslie’s neck. Before this, they are watching each other with binoculars as they sing. This ties back in with the whole spying theme “MAD” stuck on some one.

& The term “go to pot,” is used in I Love My Wife, and it means “to go to seed,” “to degenerate and go downhill,” or “to go to rack and ruin.” Well when Gonzo cheats on Camilla with Big Bird, she throws a flower pot on his head.

& In this episode’s “Patrol Bear” sketch, the theme is impersonating. Gonzo admits at the end of the show that all birds look the same to him.

Perhaps all my poems are reruns onto themselves.

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OVER & OVER & OVER