
Paco Peña
I had to leave the theatre
part way through the performance
because ...
I am so ... envious
I need to stand
and to sing
like him
in the State Theatre
man standing
there
on the stage
there on the stage
there
on the stage
a man
sound rising ...
out of his mouth
Is he the only living being in the whole eternal universe?
And now I am
standing,
I want to howl in the dark
in the State Theatre
(On one breath with arms raised)
I am howling ... my shadow stitched to the desert floor I have swallowed the night in my lungs
the desert moon is glowing I am a tree stars now for eyes and I am howling
and the rat-a-tat beat of my own heart to the lift--
I TOO AM ALIVE
"Excuse me" I say very seriously and very intensely to my very serious and very intense companion,
knowing he will understand, very seriously and very intensely I say "I have to go"
and he replies "Oh yes of course."
And I rush from the theatre to the cloakroom
the attendant looks disappointed that I am leaving
she calls my coat an umbrella.
I turn away.
I struggle across thick red carpet
through syrup air
push against my own likeness
in glass door heavy
I stand alone on the wet concrete
gulping down the wind and the rain
(On the out breath)
Ah the night
I had to leave the theatre
part way through the performance
because ...
I am so ... envious
I need to stand
and to sing
like him
in the State Theatre
man standing
there
on the stage
there on the stage
there
on the stage
a man
sound rising ...
out of his mouth
Is he the only living being in the whole eternal universe?
And now I am
standing,
I want to howl in the dark
in the State Theatre
(On one breath with arms raised)
I am howling ... my shadow stitched to the desert floor I have swallowed the night in my lungs
the desert moon is glowing I am a tree stars now for eyes and I am howling
and the rat-a-tat beat of my own heart to the lift--
I TOO AM ALIVE
"Excuse me" I say very seriously and very intensely to my very serious and very intense companion,
knowing he will understand, very seriously and very intensely I say "I have to go"
and he replies "Oh yes of course."
And I rush from the theatre to the cloakroom
the attendant looks disappointed that I am leaving
she calls my coat an umbrella.
I turn away.
I struggle across thick red carpet
through syrup air
push against my own likeness
in glass door heavy
I stand alone on the wet concrete
gulping down the wind and the rain
(On the out breath)
Ah the night
Writing

Photograph by Zoe Christianson
think of lettering
angles and curves
upon the page
writing something flat
with the plainness of saki,
tasting of paper
imagine a tender stem,
an untouched neck
a breath on the nape of meaning
- and tilting the tea-cup
I bring it to you
completely emptied of thought
there is a bird piping
there are conjurors on the skin-thin water
the mineral smell of hot weed
the daub, daub, daub of land on the weak horizon
in tidal sands again and again in each erasable print
sun-whitened skeletons and delicate maps
nothing is required except to proceed
into a distance I understand (Cameron. 2009)
angles and curves
upon the page
writing something flat
with the plainness of saki,
tasting of paper
imagine a tender stem,
an untouched neck
a breath on the nape of meaning
- and tilting the tea-cup
I bring it to you
completely emptied of thought
there is a bird piping
there are conjurors on the skin-thin water
the mineral smell of hot weed
the daub, daub, daub of land on the weak horizon
in tidal sands again and again in each erasable print
sun-whitened skeletons and delicate maps
nothing is required except to proceed
into a distance I understand (Cameron. 2009)