The Plays
Agamemnon 2.0 [sample]
by Charles L. Mee
One group of soldiers
had caught a female ape
from the menagerie
tied up with ropes
struggling to break free
but trussed up like a chicken
legs folded back against her body
tied upside down to a stake
planted in the middle of a pit
howling and swallowing dirt
its anus screaming pink and pointing at the sky
like a flower
and all the men around the pit
stripped naked for the work and sweating with pleasure
and anticipation
armed with shovels
filling in the pit with dirt
burying the ape alive
its screams choked on the dirt
until all that remains
is the radiant flower of its anus
touched by gentle white fingers
its violent contractions
helpless as it strangles on the dirt
and all who stand around the pit and watch
are overcome by heat and stupor
their throats choked by sighs
and crying out
eyes moist with tears.
HESIOD
Who will pay for this?
AGAMEMNON
I don't think a girl can avoid
thinking of her little rear end
when she sees
that anal baldness of the apes
on the other side of the bars of a cage
Take any war by itself
it makes no sense.
The meaning of any moment in history
cannot appear all at once.
Only in the succession of moments can it become clear.
One moment meaningful only in relation to the other moments before
and
after.
We are at each instant
only fragments deprived of meaning.
The totality of time alone
makes up and completes a human life.
HOMER
This is how men are.
AGAMEMNON
I can imagine the earth projected in space
as it is
in reality
like a woman screaming,
her head in flames.
The demons may be women--
as agents of destruction
or trapdoors into nothingness--
women as elements within the undirected streaming
of pleasure that will kill--
or they may be children
In war
one might take a child by its feet
from its bed at night
carry it out to the courtyard
swing it round in an arc
and smash its head against a tree
Or take a girl from her mother's arms
and tear her in half
like a rag.
These girls
who look to you
as they might look to their fathers
innocent
begging
eyes wide with trust
and love
Ladies should never fall in love.
They become stars
no one can ever reach. To look taller
they cut their heads off and stand on them.
Some fall in love with foreign accents
and dark vowels.
You see them late at night
in taverns, talking with dangerous criminals
Late at night, their voices
are small animals
waiting to be fed.
It's a nightmare really.
