Matthew Sorrento

MAZE

When I take a break
from filing reports,
mostly surveillance,
to lean back in my chair
is when I see him

usually in a diner,
or sometimes
a trendy coffee shop
where he fits in
with a keyboard, headphones,
thinking about his next strike.

If someone approaches
he may give it all up,
each location, body—
or transform into
the person they want.
The sight of him
comes to me so easily,
without even closing
my eyes.

I want to reach into
his dreamscape, for
just a bit of the non-stop
reel in his mind.

Once I think I'm there,
he’s gone.


Matt's YouTube video reading of "Maze":



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Matt confesses: "In my research on serial killers in media, I've come across the common duality that we have about them, a fascination and revulsion. Our fascination makes the task of finding and apprehending them more complicated and difficult for officials. Their job, I'd imagine, also becomes something of an obsession and even a source of anxiety, in spite of their professionalism, which gave me a reference point for my poem."


MATTHEW SORRENTO s Editor-in-chief of Retreats from Oblivion (a journal of noir, crime, and mystery fiction and culture, where he contributes poetry) and Co-editor of Film International. He writes about and teaches film history and genre cinema at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ. The author of The New American Crime Film (McFarland, 2012), his most recent book is David Fincher's Zodiac (co-edited with David Ryan, FDU Press, 2022).