Relationship Saved, At Least Briefly, By Metrical Verse

Her:   Look, I mean, it’s just really hard right now, and it’s obviously not going to get any easier.

Him:  You don’t know that.  I mean….

Her:   Don’t interrupt me.   You always interrupt me.   God, I’ve been putting up with this shit for sixteen weeks.

Him:   Sixteen weeks?

Her:   116 days.

Him:   You counted the days?  That’s messed up. …  Wait.  Are you breaking up with me?

Her:   Genius.  Good job on that Ph. D.

Him:   Wait.  Just wait.  Hold that thought.

Her:   Where are you going?

Him:   This’ll take one second.

Her:   The tripod?  The camera?  What?  No!

Him:   YES!  Listen.  This is only gonna happen once, and I want to remember it.  If this is our last moment together, I want to hold onto it [he sets up camera, begins recording].

Her:   You’re sick.

Him:   Don’t do anything different [messing with camera].  One second… just… okay: break up with me normal.

Her:   What?

Him:   Go ahead.  Just keep on.  You were counting the days.  116.

Her:   Right!  116 days.  And you’re saying it’s gonna change?

Him:   I didn’t say that.  I just said you don’t know that it’s not going to get easier.  I mean… I don’t have to change for it to get easier.  Something else could change.

Her:   You mean I should change?  I should just accept the total nothingness that I get from you in this so-called relationship and be happy with that.?  Can you seriously put the camera down?

Him:   I object to several things in that statement, but let’s conclude the current thread, here.  The circumstances could change in ways that would make it easier.  You saw what happened with Katrina and Sandy.

Her:   Who?

Him:   The storms.  Katrina and Sandy.  People’s lives were inexorably changed.

Her:   What?

Him:   Something could happen.  That’s all I’m saying.

Her:   A natural disaster would make our relationship easier?

Him:   Probably.  Of course.  

Her:   We live in South Dakota.

Him:   Flood.

Her:   Pierre, South Dakota.

Him:   Plague of locusts.  Biblical apocalypse.  Whatever.

Her:   You need help.

Him:   We’d be there for each other.  Scavenging from the rubble.  I’d be there for you.  I would always be there for you.

Her:  You drive me insane.  Go fuck your mother.   [leaves].

Him:  [stands, moves to camera, checks it]   Wow.  I totally got that.  That’s gonna be amazing footage.

Her:  [reenters].  All this shit is mine.  This is my apartment.

Him:  This camera’s not yours.

Her:  Take your camera then and get out.  I actually hate you.

Him:  I don’t believe that for one second.

Her:  [grabs camera and tripod and threatens to smash].  It’s the camera or your face.  Leave.

Him:  [re-takes camera, continues filming as he moves toward the door]  Okay.  Listen.  It’s been great with you.  I’ll never forget you sexually.

Her:  Swell. 

Him:  I mean, you’re beautiful during sex.

Her:  [kicks him].

Him:  Ow!  Damn!  I was complimenting you!  Wait [checks camera] I totally got that on tape! 

Her:  It’s not tape.  There’s no tape.  Moron. 

Him:  I can’t wait to see this footage.

Her:  [kicks him again]  Did you get that one?

Him:                Kick me!  No!  If passion moves you so then
                        Kiss me!  Now!  Let this camera do what
                        it was born to do, shoot porn of you and
                        me on this, our last day together.

Her:  Was that blank verse?

Him:  It kind of fell apart at the end, but yeah.

Her:  I love blank verse.

Him:  Yeah? 

Her:  MmmHmm.  Totally hot.

Him:  I’ve got more.

Her:  Do you?

Him:  Right in my pants.

Her:  God you’re dumb.

Him:  But you love me.

Her:  Ugh.  Let’s just go have sex and then we’ll see what happens.

[Both exit, with camera and tripod, toward bedroom]


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Layli Long Soldier's "38"

I'm reading Whereas, by Layli Long Soldier, and in the poem "38," linked here , I learned some history about the Dakota 38 and the "Sioux Uprising" of 1862, also known as "The Dakota War of 1862" (as an aside, this is the same historical event involved in the controversy at the Walker Art Center over the sculpture, "Scaffold." Long Soldier's poem was published by Graywolf, out of Minneapolis. It wouldn't surprise me if the poem was part of what catalyzed the Walker's awareness of the issue, but... that's just me speculating). I learned many things in the poem: I learned about the 38 men who were executed. I learned about Lincoln's presidency and the historical record of his presidency. I learned about the commemorative horseback ride each winter, preserving the memory of the events and of the 38 who were executed. And I learned of Andrew Myrick, who was killed in that conflict. When asked about the condition of the s...
Read more

Beautiful Doom: Heizer's "City" and Scott's "Blade Runner"

Image
There’s a striking similarity between Douglas Trumbull and Ridley Scott’s pyramidal design for the “Tyrell Corporation” headquarters in Blade Runner (1982) and the photos I’ve seen of Michael Heizer’s monumental plaza, Complex City , which has been under construction in Garden Valley, Nevada since 1972.  I’ve not seen any evidence that Trumbull & Scott would’ve been influenced by Heizer. I think the resemblance is probably nothing more than some shared archaeological interests. Still, I love the fact of the resemblance, because it really opens up a web of thinking about art and architecture’s relationship to the future. Both works explicitly and implicitly imagine futures, and both works have monumental properties:  they commemorate the present for a viewer in distant time. I want to start by outlining the web of connections, here: Both City  and Tyrell Corporation are obviously pyramid st ructures, and the structures really are similar—it’s as if Heizer’...
Read more

10th Anniversary Poets & Artists

Image
Ten years ago, the inimitable publishing force of nature known to the world as Didi Menendez expanded her empire from MiPOesias  and MiPOradio  to include a new magazine known as Oranges & Sardines . That's right. After the Frank O'Hara poem, "Why I Am Not a Painter." You know the one:  ---- for instance, Mike Goldberg  is starting a painting. I drop in. ... "You have SARDINES in it." "Yes, it needed something there." ... But me? One day I am thinking of  a color: orange. I write a line about orange ...  There should be  so much more not of orange, of words, of how terrible orange is, and life. Days go by. ... My poem is finished and I haven't mentioned orange yet. It's twelve poems, I call it ORANGES. ---- Yeah okay it's better if you read the whole thing .  But Didi wanted to put painters and poets together in a magazine and when she wants to do something she does it. I had been w...
Read more