Monday, December 17, 2012

angelica terrestrial

I am angelica terrestrial
traveling through underground tunnels and city slums

I am the daughter of Faust
born of a curse, some morbid comedy

angelica the plant
my roots and branches stretched by two worlds
parallel
so do not sing me songs of sin
or hold me to heaven's horizon

I am angelica terrestrial
moving in some mundane middle ground
let me sleep in the comforting shadow
cast by the supernatural 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Alien Country Love Song

Why do I whine in the evening
howling at dead stars who don't give a damn
why do I pick at the scabs that stopped bleeding
and cringe at the light pink flesh

my heart's stuck in alpha centauri
maybe that's where i came from

Why do I cling to the shadows
and whisper ambitions of light
what am I trying to prove
by shoving my face in your footsteps

i can hear alpha centauri
saying that's where i came from




Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Lunch



Will I become the sort of woman who seeks a quiet moment
with a lightly seasoned ripe red tomato
- on a park bench by the trash can
sucking on the flesh, gulping down the juices,
seeds and all,
indulging in a sensory sin,
sighing in hedonic ecstasy –
only to notice the time, wipe her face
and take a shortcut home?


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Play-Unrevised Draft


FADE IN:

INT. BUS SHELTER - DAY
                                                            
Annie, a woman in her early to mid twenties, sits quietly,
her purse sitting beside her, her cellphone in hand. She
anxiously checks the time every 30 seconds and cringes at
time's steady indifference. Another woman in mid twenties,
Martha, walks up to the bus shelter.
                                                            
                     MARTHA
Annie?
                                                            
Annie tenses up, previously in a state of total
introspection, in a world of her own. She freezes and
realizes she doesn't know this woman's name.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
      (nervously)
Hey, uh… ha ha… Hey you.
                                                            
                     MARTHA
      (knowingly)
Martha.
                                                            
Martha has a particularly good memory for names and faces
and the sort of ease and charm that allows her to approach
most anyone. This creats an uneasy feeling in Annie, a sense
that she had once known Martha quite intimately, that Martha
knew Annie better than Annie knew herself.
                                                            
Martha edges her way to sit next to Annie, directing her to
move her purse to her lap.
                                                            
                     MARTHA
We never really met, but you were
at Sam's art exhibit at the
Jumping Bean Café. I remember you
were with your boyfriend.
      (Martha smiles
       coyly at this,
       which only makes
       Annie even more
       uncomfortable)
It was a really tall man with
glasses.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
      (her eyes frozen
       on Martha)
Uh.
                                                            
                     MARTHA
Anyway, Sam introduced us at one
point. He said you were a writer.
                                                            
Annie sighs in relief, now finally recognizing Martha.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
      (nodding)
Yes, I remember you. I'm sorry.
                                                            
Martha laughs fully and melodically at Annie's embarrassment
and Annie finally realizes just how charming she is.
                                                            
                     MARTHA
      (flirtatiously)
Was that man? Is he your
boyfriend? I was just guessing.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
      (cringing)
He was, yeah. Um, not… well, we
broke up.
                                                            
Annie thinks Martha might be embarrassed at this, but just
the opposite, she seems to edge closer to Annie and with
compassionate eyes asks…
                                                            
                     MARTHA
Why?
                                                            
All of time, including Martha, her charm, her compassionate
eyes and free spirit, everything is frozen around Annie. She
steps outside the bus shelter and faces the audience.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
Everyone always asks why. People
like answers, reasons. I get that.
What was missing? What went wrong?
Well, do we really need a reason
to act? Does something have to go
horribly wrong? Why fucking not?
That's what really did it for me.
                                                            
Annie walks into another point in time, into a memory. There
is a bed and lying in it is a half naked man reading a book.
She takes her top off and joins him under the covers. She
continues staring at the audience.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
I was lying in bed with him like
this. It was a Sunday afternoon.
We had spent all morning in bed,
kissing, whispering, holding each
other. I was thinking about how
attached I was to him, how many
nights we were spending together
and suddenly I thought of breaking
up with him. What would it feel
like to break up with him? I
thought this and I realized…. I
wouldn't feel anything. I was like
Martha, asking " Why? What was
wrong with him?" And
then I thought… Well, why not?
                                                            
Annie gets off the bed and puts her top back on. She walks
away from the memory.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
And when I asked myself, "why
not?" There was no answer. Just a
deep, empty silence.
                                                            
Annie looks over at Martha and smiles. She looks back at the
audience.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
She's charming… but she wouldn't
get it. Because the moment I broke
up with him, I realized how
beautiful it all was. How fragile,
how pointless, how human love
could be. It reminds me of a boy
in fourth grade who had a crush on
me, Michael.
                                                            
Annie walks over to a black stand, blending in with the
stage. On top of the stand there is a small glass vase.
                                                            
                     ANNIE
For Valentine's Day, he gave me a
tiny glass vase with dandelions, I
was sure he had picked from the
school lawn. Nobody liked Michael.
He was obnoxious and had bad
hygiene. I didn't like him either,
but I kept the vase on my dresser.
      (She picks up the
       vase and observes
       it momentarily)
Years later, after Michael and his
four younger brothers and sisters
had long since moved to the
suburbs, my cat jumped onto my
dresser and kicked the vase to the
floor.
      (She drops the
       vase; it shatters)
I didn't see it happen, but I
heard the crash from the living
room. I ran to my room and my
heart sank. The sunlight was
hitting the glass shards just
right; they were glowing like
treasure. Intact, the vase was
nothing special; the dandelions
had long since been thrown away.
It just accumulated dust over the
years. It was so much more
precious, broken.
                                                            
Annie walks over to the bus stop, picking up the purse she
had left behind. She sits down and places it on her lap.
Time resumes its steady course. There is Martha, again,
vibrant, self-confident and leaning towards Annie in a way
that only she can pull off.
                                                            
                     MARTHA
Why?
                                                            
                     ANNIE
      (tired and
       frustrated)
I...
                                                            
Annie laughs to stop herself from crying. At this, Martha
is, for perhaps the first time in her life, uncomfortable.
It will never be the right time and Annie will never find
the right words to explain herself.
                                                            


FADE OUT.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

An Apology


This all started with a promise. That I would be there, consistently. I'm sorry to have been so fickle. It's a quality I'm not particularly proud of. But... just know... that I haven't given up on this.

I've been doing some performance art lately. Performances dealing with technology, social networks, loss and travel.

You can read about some of those here:

Friday, February 10, 2012

Mortality

A little less than a week ago, I thought I was going to die. I had been nauseous and with a migraine all day, and then, late at night, my left arm started going numb. I ended up spending all of Saturday night/Sunday morning at the ER. And I thought to myself, "This could be it. I didn't even see it coming".

I guess I've always assumed that I would be... older.. when truly confronted with my mortality. And it's not that I've never thought about my death; I might think about it more often than most people. I guess I've always imagined myself welcoming death, embracing it, even. But here I was, potentially about to die, and I realized, I wanted to live.

I didn't just want to live. I needed it. All of those big, philosophy 101, words that I loved to write or think about, I was living them, feeling them. Words like: self-actualization, purpose, destiny. I was talking to god, to existence, to some other, and emphatically saying, "I want to live; this isn't it for me".

To realize this, was a big deal for me. I haven't always wanted to live. 5 years ago, there was a time where I couldn't stop thinking about killing myself. As I waited on the subway platform, I would look down at the train tracks and think to myself, "What if I jump now?" I would tease myself, torture myself, thinking about my cowardice, my incompetence. I felt absolutely empty and detached from the world.

Things have changed. Maybe I'm an anti-Buddhist, but it seems to me I've spent the last few years truly forming and building attachments, rather than letting them go. Sometimes it's to my own detriment, as I greedily seek out attention, love and praise, when I don't necessarily need it. But, usually, it feels like living. Feeling loved and appreciated is fucking awesome. Loving and appreciating yourself? THE BEST. Because with this sense of competence, comes a sense of purpose. I am almost euphoric as I type this: I have a purpose. I want to advocate change, within me, around me. I want to be actively involved in this, whatever this is.

I used to think that death would come to me when I was ready. I realized this weekend that wasn't the case, necessarily. Death could come at any minute, and more likely than not, I won't be expecting it. As you read this, you might be thinking, "Yeah, that's what people say", or "Yeah, that's one of those truths that is said about life". But I want you to really feel it and live it. Mortality is not just some word you read about it. It's a fact. It's your fact. And it might be all you can hang on to.