Into The Night

(He hangs suspended by a harness from the ceiling.  She is dressed explicitly by orders from him, Bruce, her client.    A feathered blonde wig,  a "costume" from the early 80's.  Nails done.  She is dressed as the first girl he had ever loved.)

Desire fades you know...

(She is yelling up at him, Bruce is hanging 6 ft up in the air,  his arms splayed, his torso and legs supported. It was from a tall ceiling; the room was gothic, really, appropriate with ornate radiators, somber yet extravagant furnishings, poly-fiber suspension unit attached securely from the ceiling.) touching him every now and then with a slender riding crop)

Desire fades and then it's like who cares?

I don't really even remember your face!
Your dumb face!

Or how you kissed OR how you made that ridiculous expression that I probably used to find
 SO adorable.

("no, no," he mutters, craving the crop and licking his lips and feeling his heart constrict and his brow secrete ugly little sweaty's all at the same time.)

Oh, the hell with you little man.  Yeah that's all are you are to me now a LITTLE MAN.  That pathetic card you tried to send to me last christmas? I got it.  Yes.  And you know what?  I tore it shreds and then pissed on it!!

("oh Carol." he moaned. "you don't mean it, you don't.  Think about what we meant to each other.  We were going to LIVE together.  We were supposed to get MARRIED." he writhed in his restraints.)

Ha! you think I ever would have actually married you! You twerp, I just dated you so we could fuck.

(in a completely different voice, "Bruce, you did say you guys fucked right?"  "Yes, yes!" he replied sobbing.  "Ok sure," she said.  "just checking.")

Yes it was just to have SEX.  Ha! And now,  you smelly, smelly worm,  I am happily married, ecstatically happy, with 4, no 5 kids!  And a house! And, and, a lawnmower!

("oh Carol.  OH CAROL.")

(At the end of the session, Bruce paid Marcia (mar-see-uh) her money.  As he left the building, he wondered what Carol was really doing now, just this minute.

****************

So Then I Said -

So I said, listen motherfucker, either come in or stay out, don't linger in the fucking doorways no more.

You said that?

Yeah.

To his face?

Yeah.  Well no, I said it in a letter, what's the diff?


Nothin I guess.  More...I don't know, somethin in person tho I guess.

Yeah, well he never gives me the time to give it to him in person! You know he's like, I'm busy or whatever.  Or he's with his wife out dancin or whatever they do.

His wife?! Oh you didn't say he was mare-ried!

I didn't?

No!

Oh.  Slipped my mind I guess.  Huh.  I wonder if he lingers in the doorway with her, too.

What does that mean, even?

I don't know! But....it kinda makes sense if you think about it.  Know what I mean?

Yeah.
So then whadja say?

Oh, a bunch a stuff about how I loved him and all, and how I'd like ta punch him in the face if I ever did see him again.

He's not comin around any time soon, I guarantee that!

Oh you never know honey, sometimes they fall for that.  Men don't unnerstand us at all, do they?

No, I don't think so.  We're so....com-plex!

Yeah.  (giggle)  And what they don't know -

(together) Can come back and bite em in the ass!  (cackle)

But I really do love him.  Oh, I do!

You think he'll write back, honey?

I don't know.  I just can't stand seein him leanin in that fucking doorway no more.  Either come in and close the door or go the other way and don't darken my doorstep again.

Yeah.

yeah.

Yeah.







***************************

You

Forgive me Sir, but I must write you one further note, do not misconstrue my purpose for I know that our association cannot be continued:

You  Sir, are an Evil Onion.  You know by your past actions that I am not at fault by naming you thus.

There are more layers to you than even you may know, sir, that will only produce tears when exposed to the light.

Did you think I alone would be immune? Did your heart not hurt or beat at all as I wept?

Yes, I buried the child far out the back next to the mossy fence as you instructed.  I used a shovel that Ned had left leaning against the garden shed.  I was able to end his life as you suggested.  And I know you were right, that we couldn't possibly but I can't help feeling as if a wedge of glass were balancing itself in my head, ready to pierce through the skin.  So I move very slowly these days.

Thank you for the generous cheque, I am certain to need the funds in the future.

your devoted servant,
with love for ever and ever,
~

Fire vs. Water

"I'm the devil, you know," she whispered into his ear.

He laughed.  "Hahaha! I could be so lucky," he said.

The heavens they cried while the lake waters roiled.  

The sun burned in the sky and baked solid the earth.

And they danced across it all, stepping on the diamonds that were really the stars.

And she held him close, and he breathed her in.

Until the world fell away and the pit of fire threatened to open up and swallow them both.

Is love a net?
                    Does it have a trap door?
                                                             Will the angels sing as it opens and you fall?

The fire will singe but the water, it will cool,

 all.

**************************

The Boy in the Wood

Don't look too closely.

Things fit together too well when you
correlate so closely.
 "Coincidences" will tend to
pop up and
events that seemed completely
disparate
 begin to make so much
horrifying linking sense.

The Veil is lifting.
********************************************************

I remember when I told mama and papa about the boy in the wood.

They really didn't want to hear, so I tried to speak louder.

He always sat on the stump right by my trail,
 I whined.
He just stares at me and doesn't move and
doesn't say a word.
He makes me feel funny.




It's a free wood, they replied, smiling behind their faces.

I know, said mama, make friends with him!
What?
He's a lonely little boy.
I've seen him, papa added.




But he's got a knife.
So? they replied. Try harder.
He looks at me strange.
Don't be conceited.
He looks at me mean.

What would Jesus do? Go watch t.v.

I spent the rest of the summer, afraid to go out, afraid I'd see him, over there with his knife and I'd have to walk right across the grass and go right up to him and stick my hand out and say:

 Hello, will you be my friend?

Finally I just had to use my wood path to visit those faerie friends who lived deep in the forest.

I wondered if he would be there.

I thought about him as I peed.

To get to the trail, I had to pass that sour smelling, flowering bush-tree.  It hid the trail from our house.

 I saw the stump.

He was there!

 I spied him carving foreign designs into the stump between his legs.  

He hadn't yet seen me, so intent on his work;  head bowed, dirty clothes.

I approached with stealth.

Finally I was close enough to smell him.                                                     Oranges.  Sweet.

I very very carefully sat back in the weeds on my heels and watched him work.

It was peaceful and violent and I wondered if he would carve the wood down into the ground.

A breeze came up and I saw him sit up straighter.

He turned.

He saw me.

For years we stared into each other's eyes.

And then he was gone, into the woods, away away.

But I want to be your friend! I screamed after him.

The stump.  The stump.

I ran to look at his carving, his hacking, it will tell me All!

I saw a heart.  His heart,

my heart gashed and gouged there, in that wood.

He had made this for me to find.

A message, a token of his friendship!

After I got the bright idea of getting the burlap bag to pull it on, the stump became much easier to move.

I keep it with me even now.

No, no,  I never saw him again.

See, the stump, it's right behind that table.

You can look at it if you want.

I don't have to see it all the time,

but I like to know that it's there.

Things fit together too well when you

correlate too closely.

 "Coincidences" will tend to

pop up and 

events that seemed completely

disparate

 begin to make so much

sense.

Don't look too close.



******************************************************