Mastectomy

Phil Hall
Why I Haven't Written
"One Breast"

Opening stanza and closing stanza.

Amazons had them removed
like this. But they chose to.

[…]

The enemy has provided you with room
for a weapon. If we can find one.

The poignancy of the piece results from the movement into apostrophe (from mere description of the Amazons) and then into the intensification of a commitment of a shared destiny — "we" sonorously laid close to "one". We somehow know that the true weapon (like the true enemy) is shaped of words …

And so for day 1566
28.03.2011

Whose Idea of Who?

The Edward Curtis Project: A Modern Picture Story. Marie Clements and Rita Leistner.

In the play by Marie Clements there is a moment when two women are conversing. They are sisters from a mixed marriage; one is brown skinned and the other looks white. The two characters are looking at a family portrait of one of the sister's children and her estranged husband.

Dr. Clara
I'm finally going to ask him for a divorce.

Angeline
I'm sorry ...

She backs away slightly and looks at her children.

Dr. Clara
It's time ... we haven't lived together in years ...

Angeline
You still love him? ... Or just the idea of him?

She looks at Angenline

Dr Clara
Maybe I still love the idea of us.

Pause. They both look out into the darkness.

I like the ambiguity of reference - she backs away. Angeline? or Clara? Context would in a realist reading ascribe the action to Clara. But the "idea of us" complicates theatrical realism. "Us" could refer to one family unit (husband and children), another (the two sisters) or both. In all cases a certain solidarity is tested.

And so for day 994
02.09.2009