Grace Whitbeck
Mrs. Hollis 1B
Honors English 1
23 February 2012
I Love You
Prologue
Lamiah
Oh such a world of whoa. Such desperation there is for the simple words ‘I love you’. How love is fixed in such a way by human minds that it is so easy for sick men to twist beauty into torture. We fall into traps and we scratch and we claw and we try our very hardest to rip apart that very thing that would pull us out of the trap. We are so afraid that the thing that we reach for will leave us if we don’t grab it with our greedy, grubby hands. We try to pin down things that can’t be confined… they won’t be defined. We twist things that aren’t twistable and yet all the while we think that we are still the ones in power. We still think that we are the ones in charge, but really that perfect thing that we believe we are succeeding in twisting, is simply so untouchable that it is already free of our grasp. That thing that we are holding in our hands, that thing that we are wringing of the beauty that we once saw there, is really just a lie. It is a picture of something so far from the real thing, and we have painted it ourselves. The real thing is out and free and we are suffering from the slippery lies between our fingers. Why do we suffer so from something that is really so perfect? Why does man manipulate things in such a way that it ruins it all and it causes such pain that is just not curable? Why are we so power hungry yet why are we so afraid of death?
During my journey… in my story, I listened to the story of love and I heard how it’s so perfect. That’s all we really need to learn in life- just what love is. That’s what I learned- just what love is; just how to listen to it; just how to stop fearing, because love will consume you and love is untouchable.
Parados
Chorus
She moves with grace and beauty. Her steps are quick and they’re going somewhere. She walks so that she is noticed, but people don’t only look at her; they look at the way she is gazing into the stars and running to their warmth with each step. Her name is Lamiah. It is the year of 502 B.C. in ancient Greece. Lamiah falls in love, but not now. Not with Telonope.
This is the city of Athens; the city of love. Each and every city can be called the city of love, though, I suppose. There’s Paris and Rome and London and Athens, but tonight nobody falls in love in Athens.
Lamiah’s father owns a vineyard. Telonope’s father owns a bakery. Telonope has swept Lamiah off her feet. He has played his cards skillfully, sinfully. He has a precious, innocent girl falling flat on her face for him. She is a princess. He is a lie; all in the place they both call home; all in the city of Athens.
Scene 1
Lamiah
Oh, I do love him. Should I tell him tonight? He is so sweet, so kind, and so beautiful.
In waltzes Telenope.
Telonope
Hello my dear! And may I assume that you were thinking of me? Well I will, because is there any feature of mine not worth dwelling upon? Oh! I’m only kidding my darling, you are the perfect one.
Lamiah
Oh, how sweet.
Chorus
A sweet smile plays across Lamiah’s face, but Telonope doesn’t deserve even the slight curl of her lips. Even that is much too precious for his eyes.
