The Merchant Marine
from Unseen Character
(A merchant marine stands on the steps of the fire escape. He takes a wide stance.)
I wrote you a poem. And I wrote you a song. But then I combined the two and wrote you a long, long letter. Now you’ve got a poetic, lyrical letter that you better fall in love with.
You should run away with me.
Skip this town and follow me to the ends of the earth. Meet me where the sky meets the land in that little pinch of the horizon. That’s where we’re going to live together.
I want to come by, pick you up from the fire escape, and we never look back. You think you could do that? You think you could leave this place, like your father left it? Could you leave in peace? Or would you think about it every minute of the day?
You like poetry? You like poets or you like poetry? If you could spend two hours, would you rather spend two hours with the poem or with the poet? I think that’s a difficult question.
One is finding yourself. The other is someone finding you. Which would you rather be? The finder or the findee? I can see the beauty of either scenario.
To catch or be caught. Either way, there is physical contact involved.
Which would you rather have? My heart’s racing just talking about it.
Do you want to fall in love? Or do you want love to fall on you?
You’re either going to have the butterfly dust on your fingers. Or you’re going to have the butterfly dust removed from your wings.
(Lights flicker throughout the apartment. It should appear as if the lights are dancing. They dim out one by one leaving only the light of the moon glowing through the window. We hear a buzzing or hissing. Moonlight fades to black.)
