NIGHT 3
Bend
(DREAMER stands right next to BROTHER who enters from SR alleyway and is staring at a photograph in a frame while sitting on center bench. Tableau.)
DREAMER. (staring at BROTHER. Intrigued. Trying to recall something she might have forgotten) I know this boy. One of a boxed set. The last of a line of many. Surrounded… Yet all alone. His Father was always there to comfort him. His siblings on the other hand, hardly valued his existence… (Pause) Hurt him more than words could describe or amend. The days, the weeks, the years he has spent alone… (Pause) But the boy has grown up now. (Pause) I bet he hasn’t looked at that photo in years. (Pause) Has he forgotten them? Has he forgiven them? (Pause) I know this Boy.
(DREAMER exits stage left.)
BROTHER. (Sitting. Clutches the picture frame in his hands tightly.)
I am not my family tree.
These are different leaves, you know
There are miles and miles between
My roots and what I’m trying to grow.
I am not the slave they sold,
Nor am I royalty.
I’ve worn them both
The finest coat,
And rags that barely cover me.
But there is mercy in the soil,
Mercy in the sun,
Learning to forgive
What cannot be undone.
And what was meant to harm
Can’t harm you in the end,
Stepped out on a limb I thought might break
But Love said… it will only bend.
(Pause)
It will only bend.
I am not my past mistakes,
Labeled by some place and time.
Nor am I a trophy case
Trying to maintain my shine.
I have dreamed a thousand dreams
Watched a grain in famine grow.
I am not my family tree;
I have branches of my own.
Oh, does fate resign us to
Find shelter for our wounds
Beneath the battered roof of broken dreams?
Oh, but I will choose to stand
In the shadow of your hand
And see what grows when grace has sown the seed.
(a pause.)
These are different leaves you know.
(BROTHER exits left alleyway)
YOU ARE READING
Vita de Fracta (The Life of the Broken)
PoetryThe play blurs the line between reality and fantasist dreams as a young girl, known only as Dreamer, lives her life as an isolated observer; reflecting upon the people she watches during the day. Once night falls, however, she bends inwardly to her...
