It Happened One Night Poem by gershon hepner

It Happened One Night



“I’d wring hers, if she had a neck, ”
Frank Capra said: “Oh what the heck! ”
She loved to make his spirit writhe,
because her spirit was so blithe,
and yet she would not show her leg.
He thought that she would make him beg;
and tried to use a body double
to keep the actress out of trouble.
She saw the leg, said “That’s not mine, ”
then raised her skirt, and didn’t whine;
the view was hardly nebulous––
the leg she showed was fabulous,
and while it dangled and she swirled,
this single shot rang round the world.
Some actresses do more than that;
directors send them out to bat
in situation much more weird
than that Claudette had so much feared.
“It Happened One Night” is the name,
of that great film which brought her fame
far more than others that she’d star in.
It’s not that she was very daring,
for daring I don’t think the factor is
that made her popular as actress.
Here’s what most people really like:
she told Frank Capra: “Take a hike! ”
and lifted up her skirt to show
what only she till then did know:
good girls may be as naughty as
the bad, and if their legs are gorgeous,
a glimpse will cause such great surprise,
the good girl may then win the prize.
She won an Oscar for her boldness––
could not have done it all with coldness.
Though she is dead I fell most warm
about Claudette, who showed good form
by showing just one time a leg!
Now, had the other made a segue,
she would by now have been forgotten,
for they’d have said that she was rotten,
but showing one leg kept her good––
till death came, and it knocked on wood.

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