NOTE FROM PLAYWRIGHT
Think of this work as theatrical poetry taking cues from French New Wave Cinema and Chris Ofili’s Afro Muses.
CAST
Matronly Woman
Older Man
Dark-Skinned Youths
A Woman in a Blue Coat
SETTING
A piece of land with a pathway that leads to a steep cliff
LAND
A Matronly Woman purposefully
tilts the jug toward the ground as she walks
Molasses is pulled to the earth
Evidence
A Dark-skinned Youth appears
and dances with the
trail of a dark viscous substance
without touching it
No comfort comes from this
Another Dark-skinned Youth
appears
falls to the floor
rolls from one end
of molasses to the other
Dark-skinned Youth 3 appears carrying
a cloth bag of textile scraps
Dark-skinned Youth 1
dances harder
Dark-skinned Youth 2
gets faster and faster
Dark-skinned Youth 3
distributes the textile scraps
into the air
Gravity works its magic
From above
an Older Man
extends his limbs
downward
through the cotton strips
tongue outstretched
reaching
molasses pressed
flattened and rolled
by past tense dark-
skinned youths
The Older Man
waits for
his agency
his embrace
Tongue, molasses
and earth
Meet
a desperate trio
of need
ON A PATH
A Woman in a Blue Coat
Do you like my coat
I like it
When I bought it, I felt rich because the tag named a price that I normally couldn’t spend on a coat
I bought it anyway
As like a fuck you to I don’t know
my check register maybe
that ledger that tells me where my status level is between you and him
Fuck Discover and Chase
I owe them tons of money and I should have
Actually, I haven’t paid any bills in like a year
Not rent, not my electric, not my cable
wait do you still have cable Who has cable here See fuck that shit I stop paying it and one day it turned off Like the whole TV just went black It was the best thing ever I had been sick of looking at it Just like I got sick of my last boyfriend
Something happened like
I woke up one day
He never flossed ever like ever ever He brushed his teeth, but he didn’t floss You and I both know that flossing is so important You can brush your teeth all day long but if there is a piece of food that is lodged in between two molars then it will begin to decay Dying cells are the loudest
they need to be noticed so they rage and rage in the surrounding air The last bold grasp for relevance, otherwise known as stink
He was yelling at me
that’s right full on screaming accusatory belittling demeaning
the same as it always has been since our third date
Yeah and I stayed a whole two years after that third date
Stop judging me, I never claimed emotional health
Ah right! He was pissed about the cable
He watched so much cable television
No no no no no no no don’t you dare go feeling sorry for him It wasn’t sports It was something stupid like the boat channel I don’t know maybe they were fishing or some shit Like all I remember was there was boats and guys talking in hushed voices
Why would anyone need that all day every day
Fine OK maybe I should have warned him that the cable envelopes had turned red Cable made me feel so fucking poor Actually all the envelopes with peekaboo addresses from Oklahoma or South Dakota or wherever You owe us You owe us You owe us You owe us Payment is due by please remit payment you can pay you can pay please pay you pay on this date in these envelopes or at these counters every month or every week we’ll give you this when you pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay
I didn’t want cable anymore
Flat screens make my head hurt
I also didn’t want any more clothes from Macy’s
I feel dumb every time I go into the Herald Square Macy’s
Everyone looks and sounds so damn stupid
“This FRAGrance will get you a husband”
“This purse will land you a job”
Jason never fucking flossed
No thank you I kinda wanted a new purse in the moment but even the purse felt dumb
Like why would I buy a purse in a place stupid enough to suggest I marry Jason
So, I left and when my already maxed out Macy’s bill came I put it in the drawer with the other peekaboo envelopes
I can tell by the way you are looking at me that you are wondering about my employment situation
Right You wanna hear about that too No Yes What is it Which one Yes or No
I quit
Have you ever felt that moment when Rage sort of gels over everything It’s so quiet when it happens Like poof you go from each and every moment ready to stab and thrust your fist down a throat
an appropriate throat
a guy telling me to smile perhaps
to being perfectly calm and aware awake
really just more willing to be absolutely honest
That there is nothing left to really lie to myself about
The TV went black and Jason was furious, so I left and started walking and walking out my neighborhood and into another I stood at an intersection for about six hours
That was it
Six hours
Then I got up and went to this random store in SoHo
I literally can’t remember the name of the store Whenever I walk through SoHo I feel like there is so much money on the streets in people’s pockets, in their hands and minds that there is so little air to breathe
I was walking on South St. Nicholas Street and I passed Mercer and then Fifth Avenue and felt more and more lightheaded
A $3,000 bag banged my shoulder and kept bounding on
On Wooster Street
I stopped there was this coat in the back on a single hanger I walked in
There was a mannequin standing at a table maybe she was a real person, but I don’t know This blue coat was way more animated that she was
I lied to you
I didn’t buy this coat
JUST OVER THE STEEP CLIFF
WITH THE BOTTOMLESS DROP OFF
A WOMAN IN A BLUE COAT FALLS WITH ARMS OUTSTRETCHED
THE OLDER MAN AND MATRONLY WOMAN PACE BACK AND FORTH ON THE ROCKY LEDGE OF THE CLIFF
Older Man
What is this
Matronly Woman
For fuck’s sake it’s
another rock
Older Man
No, it’s smaller than a rock
It’s a silver mercurial
pebble
Matronly Woman
Is she going to be
OK?
Older Man
Yes pebbles are better than us
they were here before us
and they will be here after
Matronly Woman
I’m talking about
her in the blue coat
Older Man
This is an infinite drop
she’ll be falling like this forever
Matronly Woman
Well I guess it’s OK,
she’s smiling
Older Man
Just like this
pebble, warped by heavy
gravitational matter
Matronly Woman
<What?>
Warped
Older Man
OK, maybe just overlooked
not fitting the manufacturer’s mold
she was placed underfoot
MATRONLY WOMAN GRABS AT THE PEBBLE
OLDER MAN DUCKS AND WEAVES
Older Man
Never will they emit past
their own essence
obviously
elements are neither independent
nor sensitive
That’s why it takes earthquakes,
volcanoes, and eons of time to reshape them
MATRONLY WOMAN SCREAMS
Matronly Woman
Is this some metaphor or reference
What on earth
does this have to do with blackness
OLDER MAN STUMBLES LEANING OUT
MATRONLY WOMAN DOES NOTHING TO HELP
Older Man
Perhaps dark matter knows everything
It only seems like things are falling apart
Giving nine years of feast
then delivering famine for three
