“I will not give up my favorite decoration”—Jabba
adorns the wall in the palace
with a small regalia of dials
and knobs he is well-lit
gallery style is elegant is
tasteful he has found a small
peaceful alcove of his own
heroism to hang in in
beautiful stasis beside the
gore and tilt of his everyday
life for he has run every day
from the empire of his own
choices his whole story a
version of the word escape
we have all watched so many
times we know the story by
heart so when he walks into
that contraption at the end
of the film the descent into
flashing lights and smoke
into technology and
Chewbacca howling we see it
is his last free step even
though he will escape the
carbonite and return he is
still in that moment he is art
in that lonely lovely alcove
of a desert palace
from Museum of Objects Burned by the Souls in PurgatoryFind more by Jeffrey Thomson at the library
Copyright © 2022 Jeffrey Thomson
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Alice James Books.