the fifth star

When your favorite movie reviewer
you've followed forever and relied
on his rare and perfect four stars
as a pretty near guarantee of a ball
breaking out in your eyes and ears
as you watch, and his even, consistent
authorial voice of authority: letting

you know what he likes and does not
so delightfully well, especially on
does not! even though
you and he
do not like all the same things
at all, or equally well where you do.
But he's let you know so strong
and so clear his tastes, that an on-target
scathe of peculiar tilt tips you off

- this is your kind of flick, not his.
It takes knowing someone pretty damn well
to trust a recommendation inferred from
a dis.

I've had relationships like this!

It's rare precious, a resource like that
of opinion you trust one hundred percent, and what's
more - know just how to take.
Til' you wake up one day

and you note

the fifth star
of a brand new five star review.
Your world

drops through
to the basement below

(like all of those physicists wagged
it might do, if it all lined up)

well it has. You looked twice,
once, thrice, and with force
back and forth between four

and five. Innocence
couldn't stand the hits.
And has died.

What

has happened, just now? Did every
grade A he gave just get knocked
to a B?
You run the conversion, limping
your way with an ankle sprain
up the stairs to see.
4: A
3: B
2: C
1: D
0: F
All clear. What value is gained
to make five
A+
four: B+
three: perfect C
two: D
one: F
zero: ? zero,

I guess. An F score of 63's better than
nothing, after all. In fact, there should be
another three steps or so, 62 and below, but

sure, not
really worth it
for degrees of suck. "Don't go"

is the verdict.
Why waste your time
telling us in such fine
detail just how far back we should stay

from the line?
If there is one, even.

These are some truly bad films.

It's not a bad system, five stars, but the sudden reveal
drops the standard of four so hard.
Every top notch film you agreed you had seen,

between you, in a sense

are demoted to B. Or at best, B+ He must never have been
that impressed. All along, despite superlatives

he would choicely deploy to do yeoman's work
by only the most justified of means.

What's next, sprinkle half-stars through?

What a scene.

Either that, or a typo was made.

Either way
you don't know how to feel about
seeing this five-star film.
Well,
prepare to be blown away

- it was a typo. Sometimes one
frantic call to the office does wonders
to restore perspective, or is it
proportion?

forever
except

that one fifth star
had had its say.

You will never forget the day