Mutability

This poem is a central component to my thesis and I'm thinking that I will rewrite the poem several times to indeed include the various aspects of seeing this image. Giving and taking a little more or a little less with each version. Then I will scatter it throughout the entire manuscript.

The Mutability of the Eye

i. Playbill

Sitting in the middle of the auditorium
my eyes fall at stage level
defying the architectures stacked appeal—
a perfect seat throughout the house


i. 1st Possibility

a shoe, table leg, corner of book, [see stage right]

not high heeled shoe, 3 legged table,
mahogany streaked wood-appears odd-
fourth leg fake, chopped prop—very faux

chunk of hair—my own—falters, flops
tickling my eyelash.
Momentary—brown out.


ii. 2nd Possibility [see stage left]

on a table stands a vase
oblong in shape a bluish
tint glows from within, it radiates
along its pear shaped middle,

lighting box has caught a corner
twinkle
blue light shards everywhere



iii. 3rd Possibility [see stage center]

stage, then curtain
stage light sweeping horizontally
shoes, then legs
swollen calf muscles
pleated hem of 1950’s skirt
standing next to bobby socked
girl of eight years
who should be
made up to appear poignant—they are
pointed replicas of self,
painted on face, contrary expression of—


iv. 4th Possibility [see stage]

Bobby socks legs are dancing
in the blue lights

Pleated skirt is perched
atop a settee flaking red paint

The table is dearly missing its fourth leg and
mahogany isn’t any sort of wood at all, at least not here.
Here it is streaked paint.


v. Possibility Over-
Curtain Cued

It’s all red velvet now—

embraced shoulders and a slight lift
it all seeps underneath
reflecting back up, shiny wooden floors absorb
dark movements

a swish back, low bows, clasped hands
red velvet swinging into place

again and again