Picking up a Hitchhiker

I

Am

The

One at

The wheel

And you have

Your hands on

My shoulders from

Behind the seat. You

tell me that you’re so

dreadfully grateful, you

grin and yell that we are

Leaving and never coming

Back, and I look at your eyes

As they peer into the rearview

Mirror. They are so blue that

I’d gladly never see the sky again

If I could stare into those pools

Of yours. We’ll have more time

Once we pull over for a pit stop,

Of course. Funny to think that I

Found you there on the side of

the road with no belongings but

ripped jeans and a white t-shirt

and combat boots and a dirty

knapsack. You looked so rough

I almost didn’t pull over, but I

Saw your face, gazing into me

Through the windshield, trying

To catch my eye. Then I knew I

Had to pull over to help you. I

Know something’s happened to

You and you don’t have to tell

Me what, but I picked you up for

a reason, and

I want you to

Know that you

can talk to

me if you’d

like to. I didn’t

catch your

name by

the way. My
name is-

What’s in

your hand?

I just saw

something

flash in the

mirror. Never-

mind, it’s

probably my

imagination.

Sorry, I was

Saying, my

Name is- why

Are you…

Why are you

Laughing?

The Rest is Silence - a 6 line play after Hamlet

Hamlet enters, shuffling off the mortal coil of the earth, and into a white room. This is Purgatory. Ophelia sits in a chair, with flowers in her hair, singing. She is trying to remember how the song goes… Hamlet sits beside her. He takes a flower out of her hair and starts to pick its petals. He lets them fall to the ground. She watches him.

Hamlet: Not to be. Not to be. Not to BE. Not TO be. NOT to be. NOT to BE. NOT TO be. not TO BE. Not-

Ophelia: I haven’t seen my dad yet, but that’s probably because you sent him straight to Hell. So, thanks for that. (pause) You know, if you would have told me you weren’t actually mad, you would have made things a lot easier for me. After all your love letters and promises you go and pull a stunt like that?! You think you see a ghost and you turn the world upside down. I don’t know if you know this, but this is it for us. It’s all over. Life. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. There’s no going back to haunt people. Even you, the observed of all observers, can’t go back. You’re done. You don’t get to revisit the goodly frame, the earth, or the excellent canopy, the air, as you called it. What you saw that night was not your father. You threw your life away. I hope you know that.

Hamlet: (crumbles the flower in his hand, pause) Well, you killed yourself. How does that wash with the officials in the afterlife?

Ophelia: I’m pleading temporary insanity. See I was actually insane. I didn’t fake my way out. I’ll have to do some purgatorial janitorial work here and there for a few months, then I get to go to Heaven, on probation. With good behavior, I’ll get to settle down there. Make a garden with rosemary, rue and daisies. Go swimming. Not have to worry about drowning anymore. (pause) You’re welcome to come visit. You know, if you want to, or whatever.

Hamlet: (silence) I really did love you when we were alive, you know that? (pause) You were just too much of a daddy’s girl.

Ophelia: Momma’s boy.

They look at each other and laugh, loud and long. The laughter echoes in the room as the lights get brighter and brighter. So bright, there’s nothing left but light.

Inventor of Scissors

He........................................................................................is
the....................................................................................one
who..................................................................................took
steel,...............................................................................whet
edges..........................................................................with an
obdurate....................................................................stone, a
slice of twi...............................................................light in his
left eye, sweat....................................................dripping onto
newborn blades..............................................honed for battle
but of another kind....................................The rasping sheets
sparked and burst, flying......................pyrotechnics off of the
hot shear, off of one then....................the other, simultaneous
blades so sharp blood would........ rise at the touch of a thumb.
He gripped the polished cast steel pieces. He bore a hole, a fire
beneath, made the metal drippy as milk. He blew through the
eye sized break and through it wrapped a fallen willow bough.
The crescent cut sky bled pinpricks of light, his hands working
with a single thought as sharp as sin itself. He held it up against
the sky as if to carve a second celestial body, to slice away the
dark, to blunt the blades with blackness, to carve his way out.