Tempest: A Poem In Script Form



INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT.
It is raining.

You see, he tells her
There are always things (inside things)
And as she feels the raw
Where the rope eats into skin
She wonders if she is inside someone else

we fade to

INT. CAR. DAY.
He often wonders
(as he drives)
why the lights
are better at night
(like people)

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT.
It's still raining.

"Do you know pain?"
He pants
his breath hot on her skin
(oh she feels so filthy, and it hurts)
hoping (wanting) she will
understand
do you know pain?

EXT. BRIDGE. TWO HOURS LATER.

It would have been good, she says
and he nods
I would have been good
Two inches to go
She kisses him (on the lips this time)
and lets him fall

cut to

EXT. SAME BRIDGE. NEXT MORNING.

(same shit, different day)
and the coffee still sucks
but five bodies in five states
each tell their own stories
of a butterfly kiss
and a razor blade smile


Photo taken on jetty in Jerejak Island, Penang, circa new year 2004.