Casablanca

May 25, 2006

Originally, in the Epsteins' script,
The last scene showed how Rick and Ilsa fled,
Leaving Laszlo behind, as good as dead,
And leaving us to witness how corrupt
True love could be - how acting on the good
(The role love plays in any other film)
Was tantamount, in this one, to a crime.

But the dictates of want gave ground to should,
So Victor Laszlo and his wife took flight
To Portugal, from there to greater danger,
While Major Strasser lay inside the hangar,
Shot in cold blood and glorious black and white.
How simple it was, knowing what to do,
In the good old days of 1942.

by Clay Stockton