deplanement

prompt (playwriting): take a 'headline' and make it 'ripped from the headlines' a la law and order. ALSO take a 'celebrity' and throw them in there.

i'm quite proud of this one. it needs a bit of cleaning up though.

headline/ news story: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-01-23-airtran_x.htm
a little something you might remember if you read my other blog (aimeehateseverything)

Heroes

Heroes

PLACE: Airplane cabin, a Boeing 747, 2 colums of three seat rows.
TIME: December 24th, present day.
CHARACTERS: Doug, Karen: a couple with their 3-year old daughter, Emma
Captain, Flight Attendant 1 , Carl, Woman 1, Flight Attendant 2, Man 1, Man 2, Dr. Spock: the pediatrician and author, Teen 1, Renee: AirTran employee, Woman 2

(Lights up on DOUG, KAREN and EMMA. They are sitting in the downstage right seats. Other passengers are filing in, picking seats, etc. Everyone is tired, but conversation is loud.

CAPTAIN

(over speaker) Hello ladies and gentleman. Thank you for flying AirTran. Sorry about the delay folks. It looks like we are running about a half hour behind already, so if you could find your seats as quickly as possible, we will get you off the ground as soon as we can. Thanks again for choosing AirTran.

(EMMA is seen getting fussy. She walks around, getting in people’s way, etc)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1

(Over Speaker) Hello everyone, my name is Kelly, and I will be one of your flight attendants today. As the Captain just said, please find your seat as quickly as possible. Please store all large luggage in the overhead bins and keep smaller items such as coats and laptops under the seat in front of you. We have a completely full flight tonight folks, so we are going to need as much bin space as possible. If you can’t find a place for your bag, we will gladly check it for you.

CARL

You are in my seat! I paid for this seat! You’re in my seat!

(CARL is yelling at a woman in a seat)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Sir? Is there a problem here?

CARL

Yes, there is. This woman is in my seat and refuses to move.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Ma’am? May I see your ticket stub?

WOMAN 1

Absolutely.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Sir? It looks like you are in seat C, not A.

CARL

I didn’t pick an aisle seat! I never choose an aisle seat!

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Sir, I’m sorry but, we are very full, so if you could just take your seat…

CARL

I’m never flying this airline again.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1

(Over Speaker) It looks like we have everyone checked in, if you could all please take your seats, put your chairs in their full and upright positions, and your tray tables up, we can get you on your way as soon as possible.

(There is a shuffle of people. Eventually everyone is settled except for EMMA who is hiding under her seat. KAREN is trying to get her to come out.)

KAREN

Come on honey, you need to come out. We’re going to go see Grandma! Don’t you want to see Grandma?*

EMMA

No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!

KAREN

*Emma, if you keep acting like this, Santa isn’t going to bring you any presents tomorrow.

(EMMA starts wailing)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Excuse me, ma’am? I need you to get her to sit in her seat.

KAREN

I’m trying, she won’t come out.

(KAREN tries pulling EMMA out, getting her to her lap, where EMMA struggles)

How’s this?

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

I’m sorry, she needs to be in the seat, with a belt on.

DOUG

Emma! You need to calm down. Calm down, Emma, honey…

(EMMA crawls across the seats and sits on DOUG’s lap, and starts hitting him while he tries to put her in the seat)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

You need to get your daughter under control. We are already running very late as it is.

KAREN

I know, I know. She’s very tired, you see…

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Ma’am, I don’t mean to be rude, but we all are. If you could just calm her down.

KAREN

I’ll try.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1

(Over Speaker) All right folks, it looks as though this flight has been overbooked. We have a family of three that is looking for seats. If anyone is willing to give up their seat on this flight, we will not only refund you the price of this flight, but your replacement flight will be complimentary. Anyone? No takers? It seems as though we have a few minutes before we can push back from the gate, if anyone changes their mind, please let one of us know.

(The FLIGHT ATTENDANTS are making their final checks. EMMA is still not in her seat.)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Ma’am? Is there anything we can help you with?

(EMMA is strggling in her mother’s lap, crying loudly)

MAN 1

Hey! Shut that kid up, put her in th’ seat so we can leave!

(There are murmurs of agreement)

MAN 2

Yeah, lady! I want to see my family before Christmas, if you don’t mind!

KAREN

I’m sorry, I’m try—

DOUG

Don’t you dare talk to my wife that way!

(DOUG tries to get out of his seat)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

SIR! I urge you to sit down! And as for you two, we are trying our hardest to get you off the ground as quickly as possible. Negative comments aren’t helping.

(DOUG is standing, blocked by FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2, EMMA is smacking him)

MAN 1

Kick ‘em off!

(DR. SPOCK gets up from a seat in the back and walks to the front)

DR. SPOCK

No, I’m sure we can deal with this in a civil manner.

KAREN

Who are you?

DR. SPOCK

Dr. Spock. I wrote a book…

KAREN

Oh yes! Do help.

DR. SPOCK

What do you usually do?

KAREN

Um…

DOUG

She lets Emma have her hissy fits.

DR. SPOCK

Is that so? Do you want her to have hissy fits?

KAREN

Well, no?

DR. SPOCK

Do you want her to know right from wrong?

KAREN

Yes, but, what if I damage her—

MAN 1

I did not pay to sit on a plane/ and listen to a therapy session!

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

SIR! We are trying our best.

DR. SPOCK

You won’t. Trust your instict. You know how to deal with this.

KAREN

Emma! You come here and stop this right now! Come here!

(EMMA comes and slaps her mother)

Now what?

DR. SPOCK

It’s up to you. Trust yourself. You know more than you think.

(DR. SPOCK returns to his seat)

MAN 2

That was completely useless

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Sir! Please keep your comments to yourself, we are trying to deal with this situation best we can.

(FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1 approaches)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1

Ma’am? Sir? I’ve been speaking with the Captain and our ground crew and I’m afraid we are going to have to ask you to exit the plane./ We will refund the amount of all of your tickets.

DOUG

You can’t kick us off!

KAREN

We paid for these tickets! We are staying!

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1

I’m sorry, but you are making a disturbance and delaying the flight.

KAREN

That isn’t our fault!

MAN 1

Yes it is…

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1

I’m sorry ma’am, but we need you to leave. Sir, if you could please exit the aircraft.

DOUG

I can’t believe this.

(The family gathers their things, EMMA is still crying and hitting her parents. RENEE has entered the plane.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 1

If you could just follow Renee, she will take you to the gate and refund your money.

DOUG

This is ridiculous. We are never flying this airline again. And we will be filing a complaint against this whole crew.

TEEN 1

We should file one against you!

(DOUG tries to go back, scattered laughs and murmurs)

FLIGHT ATTENDANT 2

Excuse me! We will ask you to leave as well!

RENEE

Please follow me.

(DOUG, KAREN and EMMA follow RENEE offstage. The FLIGHT ATTENDANTS are returning to their spots.)

WOMAN 2

I’m going to fly AirTran all the time…

(Murmurs of agreement. One passenger starts clapping. The rest follow with thunderous applause. )



//i'm proud of this script for several reasons. first, its one of the longest i've written in a while, and it has the largest cast of characters i've worked with, not to mention i tried to work in some interruptions/ continuations (thats the *s and /s). plus, the story, which was handed to me on a silver platter known as yahoo top news, was easy to run with. enjoy!

first love?

Prompt: Write about your favorite place - natural setting or otherwise. Imagine how it might be changed in your lifetime?

Note: I've gotten a similar prompt before, and have gone a similar direction, but that first time I was reprimanded, because it wasn't a real place. evs, yo. So this is the very first draft (that has a lot of holes and needs a lot of help) of a story I've been meaning to write for a really long time.
-------------------------
First Love?
They say you never forget your first love. Augh, cliché, I know, but I think “they” might be on to something. Given, my story is not a typical one, but bear with me on this one. This is the story of me and Joe. Oh I loved him, but I didn’t know it.
I remember the first time my dad brought him home. I thought he was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. Slightly boxy, completely unattractive, and nothing I would ever want to be seen with. He stuck around anyway.
My sister got him first, of course. She was older, so she had first dibs. She didn’t treat him right at all. Spilled drinks, accidents, scars. Poor guy.
I got Joe the summer before my senior year of high school. I finally got my driver’s license and now I had my first car, Joe Warrior. He was still nameless at this point, and I still hated him. He was even uglier now that my sister had used him. She ran him into a trailer hitch the winter before, so he had a bent bumper and a holey faceplate. Not to mention the fact that she let the road salt eat away at the paint job. He started out a nice white, and by the time I got him, he was more of a coffee stain tan. She had also neglected to change the oil for about eleven months, and hadn’t filled the wiper wash for about three.
There were so many things wrong with him. There was no air conditioning, which is incredibly unpleasant in 95-degree heat. Once winter came, I found out the heat didn’t work all that great either, and frost had a habit of condensing on the inside of the windows, instead of outside. One of the back doors didn’t unlock, and the front speaker on the driver’s side took five minutes to turn on.
For being a 1991 Chevy Cavalier, he had obviously seen better days. Through out the year, I began to get really attached to Joe. He had the most comfortable seats, and many of my passengers accidentally fell asleep, even on short drives. The seatbelts didn’t slide up your chest and rub against your neck, and once we got the heat fixed, I usually had to roll down the windows because it got too warm. And, despite the glitch with the front speaker, the rest of the sound system was amazing, and the tape deck worked fantastically.
Joe and I had some good times. I loved driving out into the old highways, where all you could see was cornstalks and soybeans for miles. Joe’s top speed was 70, and that was plenty for me. On a warm summer day, with all the windows rolled down (cranks, no automatic windows for Joe), stereo blasting a Beach Boys cassette, I would drive all over the farmland that bordered my hometown. Those were great days.
Then Joe started to fall apart some more. I left for college, and he was left sitting in the driveway for eight months of the year. He started to burn oil, and over heat. To keep the engine cool, I had to leave the heat on, even in the summer. The light in the trunk disconnected, his rear passenger turn signal shorted out and blinked twice as fast. My parents would have a few of the things fixed, but it was getting to the point where he was just getting old.
The summer before my senior year of college, my dad informed me that the next time anything broke on Joe, they were going to get rid of him. My heart dropped, and I actually went upstairs and cried for twenty minutes. I was crying over a car! How silly of me… right? It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how much I had grown to love the ugly heap of metal that lived in our driveway. I had spent so much time, learning how to drive in him, taking road trips, surviving some terrifying moments in a snow drift, the thought of losing him was unacceptable to me.
Joe lasted through the summer. Towards the end I couldn’t take him farther than 15 miles, or anything that required more than 45 MPH. He stopped shifting gears and eventually just sat in the driveway, unused. I knew my parents were going to take him, once I left, so I cut the middle seatbelt out of the back seat as a memento. On the inside of the back driver’s side door, I wrote “LULU ©s JOE” in Sharpie. A little weird, I know, but just in case anyone else ended up with him, I wanted them to know that he was loved and they needed to take care of him.
My dad ended up selling Joe to a friend of his a month after I left. My mom told me that there was $100 in an envelope for me, because he really was my car. After I hung up with her, I cried all over again. I had lost my love, Joe. He was in the hands of someone else. When I went home for winter break, I actually saw someone driving him. My heart leapt, and then fell to my stomach. He was no longer mine.
Three months into spring semester, my dad told me that his friend had Joe junked. All that is left of my beloved first car is a square of steel that is going to be melted down and made into screws and nails. Thinking about it still makes me quite sad, but I still have my seatbelt and my car key. A few mementos of a first love.

Coin the Catchphrase: Final round

My Shotgun Piece!
Actors: 5 Prompt: Fake Christmas Tree
-okay, i totally cheated and used part of my ovary monologue. I love that thing. its probably one of my favorite things i've ever written. the 'like a vampire' part was rewritten with my actress, and she totally sold it. this is the original version, the performed version was different. like a vampire won.

(Lights up on DAPHNE J. MEYERS, and the four FINALISTS.)
DAPHNE J. MEYERS
Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the final round of Coin the Catchphrase! I am Daphne J. Meyers and I am your host for the evening. By the end of the night, one of these four finalists will be our grand-prize winner! They will get this shiny medal, a check for $1,000 and will get their catchphrase printed on shirts to be sold at Hot Topic! It’s been quite a ride so far, last night we said goodbye to Ben from Ohio and his phrase “Holy Mother of Bob.” But tonight, we have a special surprise! The audience will help the judges determine what our new catchphrase will be! Lets get started, shall we? First up is Matt Anderson.
MATT
Hey everyone. Thanks for helping me get to the final round, that’s pretty cool. My catchphrase is ‘an asston.’ Descriptive, right? Basically it means ‘a lot.’
First, a little history, about two Christmases ago I was at a friend’s house and their fake Christmas tree was over decorated. And I mean, overkill. You couldn’t tell if it was one of those retro aluminum trees or a green one. It was that bad. I was trying to explain this image to someone and I was lacking an adjective with oomph. And then it popped into my head. Their tree had an asston of tinsel. And I’ve used it ever since.
Now, I like to use it as a standalone answer. For example, if someone asks me how many people we’re on the MUNI, I can just say, “an asston.” Pretty simple. Plus its… vivid. Can you imagine what a ton, like the measurement, not the figure of speech, a ton of asses would look like? That’s a lot of asses my friends. Or even better, an ass that weighs a ton! There’s an image for you. That’s like a quarter of an elephant. So I’m going to leave you with that image. Vote for me and we will sell an asston of shirts!
DAPHNE J MEYERS
Okay, Matt Anderson everyone. Thank you for starting the show with such a… colorful phrase. Next up we have Sam Jorgenson.
SAM
Hi everyone. Hi Mom and Dad! They’re right there! Hi, sorry, okay. I feel so extremely lucky to be here and that everyone has accepted my contribution, even though it’s a bit untraditional. My catchphrase isn’t verbal, but more like nonverbal… stance. It’s called the No Face. (does the No Face). The face has been passed down from my Grandma to my Mom to me. Essentially you use it to convey disappointment. Sometimes you don’t want to words and all you have to do is the No Face. It doesn’t always have to be serious though. If you shake your head and mouth ‘no’ while you do the No face, it means that you are only teasing, though the person receiving the No Face is definitely being dumb about something. Once you practice enough, people can feel the No Face without even seeing it. If you are really good, they can feel it from rooms away! My mom is a genius when it comes to the No Face. I can feel the Face not only from a different room, but a different story of the house. You can sense the silence and feel the face. I hope that you can feel the Power of the No Face, and vote for me. Thanks!
DAPHNE J MEYERS
Thank you Sam! Good job thinking outside the box. We like that kind of spirit around here. Our third Finalist is Cass Davis.
CASS
Hello everyone! I hope you are having a good time. My catchphrase is something that my friends and I find utterly fantastic and want to share it with you all. It is “like a vampire.” Strange I know, but its’ an amazing way to describe speed. Anything that’s really fast, it’s like a vampire. It all started when we were talking about how things can disappear really quickly. The conversation then turned to what disappears the quickest? Of course, vampires do. I mean, they are like WOOSH, gone. I’m sure some of you are wondering what you could use this for, right? I have a situation for you. You’re at a party with your friends and everyone in the group needs a beer. You, being the kind person you are, offer to get some. Someone says, ‘hey, don’t take too long’ and all you have say is, ‘oh no, I’m like a vampire.’ Not only are you telling them you are one speedy person, but you have sparked a new conversation, about vampires! Doesn’t everyone like to talk about vampires? I know I do. I’m sure that each and every one of you can imagine the shirt in y our head. A vampire, cape in mid-swoosh, and in dripping letters, “like a vampire!” You can see it, I know you can. Vote for me!
DAPHNE J MEYERS
Thank you Cass, how very imaginative. It is now time for our fourth and final catchphrase finalist. Jill March, Everyone.
JILL
Oh my god! Hi everyone! I am so excited to be here! I can’t believe I made it to the final round! Okay, my Catchphrase is “blank makes my ovaries clap.” I know what you’re thinking, but men can use it too! They don’t have ovaries to clap, but they can make ovaries clap. Can’t you just see some guy saying, “this car is going to make ovaries clap!”?
Anything you find attractive can make your ovaries clap. My friends and I usually use it to talk about guys, such as “Jake Gyllenhaal makes my ovaries clap,” or “Coffee guy makes my ovaries clap.”
Okay, so there is this incredibly attractive man that frequents the coffee shop I work at and my ovaries don’t just clap for him. They jump up and down in a standing ovation celebration!
There are degrees for you ovaries to celebrate.
Like when I meet up with my roommate and her annoying yet oddly hot boyfriend for dinner or something, my ovaries clap politely because the guy is definitely easy on the eyes youknowhwatimsaying?
But with Coffee Guy, my ovaries shout YAY REPRODUCTION! And have a little hormonal dance party in my abdomen.
Oh! Then there is the ovarian reaction to attractive-fun guys. Jim from the Office, the American version, perfect example! He’s got cute floppy hair and you just want to hug him all the time and join in on his pranks. They do cartwheels! I’m pretty sure they are even saying Wee! In the process!
There are so many more ways that they can applaud, and excited for other people to discover them. Thank you so much for your time. Coin the Catchphrase makes my ovaries clap!
DAPHNE J MEYERS
Okay! Now you all have heard from our four finalists. Who will join the ranks of our previous winners, “word, yo” and “so hot”? Will it be Matt Anderson and “an asston”? Sam Jorgenson and the No Face? Cass Davis and “like a vampire”? or Jill March with “blank makes my ovaries clap”? Our judges are about to vote, and your applause might be able to change their mind!
Lets hear it for Matt and “an asston!”
What about Sam and the No Face!
Cass with “like a vampire”!
And last, Jill and “blank makes my ovaries clap”!
Well, that was overwhelming. Let me get the result from the judges.
(is handed the ‘results)
It looks like _________________ is the winner! Come on up here! Is there anything you would like to say?

(Alternate Endings, depending who wins)
MATT
Hell yes! This crowd rocks an asston! I want to see all of you wearing my shirt!

SAM
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, thank you! MOM AND DAD WE DID IT!

CASS
I won? I WON? YEAH! LIKE A VAMPIRE!
JILL
All of you make my ovaries clap! I can’t wait to see the shirt!

DAPHNE J MEYERS
All right! I’d like to thank all of you for coming to the finale of Coin the Catchphrase! Keep your eyes out for our new shirt in Hot Topic stores! Good Night!

3.29/30.07

Runaway

monologues class:
Prompt: write an opening monologue to the play of your life.
-holy hell, thats a heavy assignment. i think this could be a lot better though i like the action of the piece.

(Lights up on AIMEE sitting at a table downstage center, a laptop computer sitting in front of her, as well as a stack of books. She is typing as the lights come up. The rest of the stage is bare)
AIMEE

You know those silly surveys people forward to you through email and are all over myspace? I am addicted to them. It’s my favorite form of procrastination. I can spend hours thinking up witty answers to silly questions. “Are you sarcastic?” No! Me? Sarcastic, never! “Would you let someone shave your entire body (including your head) for $100,000?” My head only, there is no way I will deal with arm stubble for the rest of my life. One of my favorites is “What is your favorite swear word?” I then spend about three sentences explaining that I don’t swear out loud unless it’s included in a song. Ah, good times. When I get really bored, which is a step after spending a half hour searching movie quotes to use as titles for my blog posts, I go deep into the archives of my blogs and redo old surveys. I get a total kick out of reading what I wrote a few years ago. What’s even better is reading survey’s I did before I graduated high school. It’s amazing how much some of my answers have changed. “Have you ever been drunk before?” Then: absolutely not. Now: hah! Oh yes. “What are you looking forward to?” Then: going to college! Now: graduating from college! The answer to one question in particular has changed a lot, “Have you ever run away from home.” In high school this question was incredibly easy to answer. It was a big resounding no. I’d never as so much as sneak out of the house, let alone run away. Now, the answer lands in a bit of a gray area, and it really depends on my mood. I didn’t run away from home in the traditional sense. However, if you ask my friends and family back east, I think you will find that they are under the impression that I did. I guess it really depends on how you define ‘run away.’ If it’s only that you leave home without telling anyone, well I didn’t do that. But, if you put it more as leaving home to live somewhere else against advice to do otherwise, then I definitely did that. On August 24th of 2003, I gave a tearful goodbye to my parents, got on a plane with two large suitcases and flew 2,000 miles away to go to school. I got a lot of flack from people back home. They said that I left them and that I should have just gone to school closer to home. Now, I’ll admit I was miserable for most of my freshman year. There were times that I felt that the homesickness was utterly unbearable, but I am much too stubborn to give up that quickly. I stuck it out for that first year, I made friends and eventually started to feel at home here.
(For the rest of the monologue, furniture is brought in upstage. It is a dorm room, consisting of two beds, two desks, two sets of drawers, a mini fridge and television.)
Leaving those friends at the end of my freshman year proved to be as hard as leaving my family the previous August. Little did I know that the next few years of my college experience were going to make my freshman year pale in comparison. Lucky enough for me, I have almost all of those weird and crazy experiences recorded in my many blogs, usually in the form of a silly survey.
(AIMEE crosses upstage with her laptop. The table remains downstage. She sits on the stage right bed, and starts typing again.
12 february 2007

Attacking Ellen

Reaction to Daniel Alarcon (go read Lost City Radio. it is utterly fantastic. he also said i had a charmingly spelled name. awww).
Prompt: . Daniel said that his book “touches on national trauma...all this stuff that literature has been avoiding”. Write a story about something you think literature has been avoiding, or something that was not always acceptable to write about, but that has a high level of social and/or political significance.

-so this is my attempt at being 'edgy' and hopefully i don't end up like the freedom fries guy that pam went out with on that episode of the office.

Attacking Ellen

(Lights up on DIANE and STEVE, ELLEN’s parents. They are sitting on a couch, looking upset. ELLEN enters)

ELLEN
Mom! Dad! I’m here! I thought Spring Break was… (She sees her parents). Oh god, what happened? Did Poppy die? What’s wrong?

(They blankly stare at her, she sits)

What?

(Long Pause)
DIANE
We know what you did.

ELLEN
Did? What did I do? What’s going on?

STEVE
Don’t play dumb with us, Ellen. We know.

ELLEN
Apparently I don’t know. What are you talking about?

DIANE
I think you do. We got a letter from Ben today.

ELLEN
Ben? I haven’t talked to him in like two… oh god. Oh no.

DIANE
I guess you do know.

ELLEN
Mom, Dad, I…

STEVE
How could you do that Ellen? How? I thought we brought you up better than that.

ELLEN
Dad, I…

DIANE
My daughter is a slut!

ELLEN
Mom! I am not a… slut. God.
We had been going out for over a year…
I thought I loved him.

DIANE
I don’t care. We taught you better than that!

ELLEN
You didn’t teach me anything! You relied on the school system to teach me. Hah.

DIANE
I guess they didn’t do very well.

ELLEN
They did perfectly well. I knew what I was doing. (Pause) On all counts.

STEVE
You’re making this worse for us Ellen. How could you do that?

ELLEN
I didn’t have a choice, Dad!

STEVE
You always have a choice! How could you do that to us? Take that away from us?

ELLEN
From YOU? How about what it would have taken away from me? I can’t believe you are thinking about yourself in this.
It was my decision, Dad. Mine.
I had to think of myself.

STEVE
Maybe you shouldn’t have been so selfish. Thought of the big picture.

ELLEN
I was thinking of the ‘big picture’! I was thinking of my future. I was only 20. I couldn’t even imagine—

DIANE
Don’t you even say it! You… you… killer!

ELLEN
Mom! I would think you would understand a little bit more! What if it had happened to you?

DIANE
It wouldn’t have happened to me. I wasn’t a slut.

ELLEN
You know, this is exactly why I didn’t tell you. I knew you wouldn’t understand and that you would freak out just like you are.

STEVE
You guessed right. You… defied us. We are your parents you are supposed to listen to us.

ELLEN
I know, you’ve been telling me that my whole life. But if I had told you, I knew what you were going to say, and that would have been asking me to ruin my life. I couldn’t…

DIANE
There are other ways of… dealing with things like this.

ELLEN
No! No there is not! You aren’t listening to what I’m saying. It would have ruined me. I couldn’t have gone to school like that! All of the classes I would have missed… no. Not at all.

STEVE
There are other ways. And you should have asked us before going ahead with anything.

ELLEN
How is it your decision? How is my body your property? It’s bad enough the government is poking their dirty little fingers into this, but I would think that as parents you would care more for my well being before anything else.

DIANE
We are thinking of your well-being —

ELLEN
No, you aren’t! You are so narrow-minded Mom. You want me to believe and do as you say. And I can’t do that. I’m going upstairs, if that’s all right with both of you.

STEVE
We aren’t done here young lady.

ELLEN
Can we please be done, for now at least? You two are exhausting me…

STEVE
This is nothing compared to parenthood.

ELLEN
Well I wouldn’t know that would I?

DIANE
No, you wouldn’t. Go to your room.

(ELLEN exits. DIANE and STEVE remain on the couch and look at each other)

STEVE
Honey, don’t cry…

DIANE
Did we fail? Are we bad parents Steve? What went wrong?

(Lights slowly fade to black)
1 April 2007

MORE POETRY!

Reaction to Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
Prompt: Write a poem and construct it based on breath. Break the lines intuitively according to when you take a breath in the line
-i don't like this one. i didn't like writing either... so it goes.

yet again.
I’m not good at this at all
I never know what
I should say. It
Should be simple
Don’t you think?

But its not
The same thing
Happens every time
I blank out and
Say nothing of importance.

And I miss my
Chance yet again to
Be important, to
Make a statement.

I hate it every time
Utter dissapointment
In a missed
Opportunity.
26 march 2007

*calendrics

Reaction to Matthew Cooperman:
Prompt: i didn't use any of the prompts i was given, but when he signed my book, i told him that i loved the calendrics he wrote, and he told me to try them myself. so i did. i kind of like them. calendrics are really short poems, reflection on a month or specific time, so i did 3 of them.

*calendrics
march
wait for payday
check to check

no time to sleep, eat
nothing to eat anyway

time goes
alarm rings again


february
short month, too long
mercury in retrograde?
Everyone’s lost it.

MUNI ticket, pay a fine
No bus money for later

I need a beer
And so do you
28 days is long enough


january
unseasonably warm
countdown to snow

morning drives, heat on
day drives, windows down

thermal sweatshirts, scarves, mittens
layers layer layers!

More goodbyes, more tears
Suitcases, plane tickets

Back to bus fares
Back to schedule

3.18.07