Shufu Theater: Interview with a Civilian

[This is not technically a "poem" but a theater piece in verse-like format. Madelyn Kent has been creating a series of "interviews" with her collaborators -- female Japanese students of English -- by asking them to research topics and speak about them, recording their words with some of the grammatical eccentricities intact. These plays are performed in a very slow, suspended pace that resembles butoh in its stillness, but also, to my mind, parts of that Werner Herzog film Heart of Glass for which the actors were all hypnotized.]

"Interview with a Civilian"

April 9, 2003

CIVILIAN

I think

His action
Was
mmm...

                Pause.

Too soon
He should have
Waited until
The rest of the world
Support
The United States
Before he acted
He he

                Pause.

With military action

                STATIC/NOISE.

I’m
An Iranian
Living in
Morocco
I was born in Iran
And my family
Was
Kinda rich
And
We

                Beat.

My family was living happily
And enjoying
Enjoying

                Beat.

That
Our country is
Was getting modern

                STATIC/NOISE

My father
Was
My father owned company of carpet

                Pause.

And
But
Revolution

                Beat.

Came

                Beat.

And

                Beat.

                Hands.

That circumstances were changed

                Beat.

And
People hated
People suddenly
Showed hatred
For

                Beat.

Something related to America
Or Western country
And our family was seen

                Beat.

As enemy
And when
At that time I was sixteen
And it’s good time
And my father said it’s good time to go
Abroad to study
So I went to Britain to study

                Beat.

I’ve never gone back
To Iran
Yet

                Beat.

But someday I will go back to Iran
I want to go back

                STATIC/NOISE

Now I teach
I teach

                Hand out.

At school
And
I also
Some volunteer work
In Morocco

                STATIC/NOISE

Our students
Are
mmm...
thinking about Bush as a

                Pause.

Selfish leader
And he is

                Beat.

Arrogant

                Beat.

One of my student
Is thirteen and
She
She came from
mmm...
Lebanon
And her father was
Soldiers, soldier
A soldier
And was killed in the war
She said
She hated President Bush
And she said
Wanted to show the real vision
Of the war
Because she thought
President Bush has never
Has never known

                Beat.

How
It was like
In
The battlefield

                STATIC/NOISE

I think
There must have been something

                Hands crossed

That

                Beat.

                Hands together.

He felt he was weakling
And felt
Inferior to other people
Because
We see
He just want
To show his

                Beat.

Power?
And

                Pause

And he really we think he really wants
To win
Just not only for the war
But everything

                Pause.

I think
Including his life
mmm...
He
mmm...

                Beat.

He
I think he
He has never
Thought
That
But other people see he
Wants to be
Someone who
Knows
Who knows everything about the world
mmm...
and he thinks
he knows everything

                STATIC/NOISE

I wish
I wish
That
All the country
Which
Countries which
Has have
Weapons and
I mean nuclear or some other weapons
I want those countries
Get together
And talk

                STATIC/NOISE

I hope
My country
Iran
Has
Some main role
To lead the region
And

                Beat.

Maintain
The situation
I mean I think
mmm... (head side)
I don’t think it’s getting better
Now
Because the war happened
And we see
I mean the Arab’s see
Our people has
Been
Have been
Discriminated
Looked down
And some people feel
Humiliated
Those feelings
(Hands)
could
motivate
some people
act
act wrong things
like terrorist attacks

                STATIC/NOISE

Maybe it’s difficult
To ("verb")
Democracy in my country
I think
We going to happen
But United States shouldn’t
Shouldn’t do
Shouldn’t force their way
To us
But we should take time to
(Hand pats)
bring bring
about

                Beat.

We have to
We have to
Step
By ourselves
We have to learn
Step by step

                STATIC/NOISE

I don’t want people
To become
Like America
We are not America
So we
We should
We should make
Our own style
Of democracy

                Pause.

I want
I want to
Help
People
Who want
More
Information

                Pause.

And I just
What could I do
I can’t
(nod)
providing

                Beat.
The
Information that people
Don’t know yet

                Beat.

People don’t know
The outside of the world
There

                STATIC/NOISE

I miss
I miss about
Market
Crowded market

                Beat.

I touched that
Grains
That

(Hands)

is in
sack
many many
there were many many sacks
In the street
and there were
small birds
gathering the grains
and

                Beat.
I
I want
I want to buy some
Candy
It smells like
Mildew (thinking)
And
Tumeric

                Pause.

The birds
It looked like

                Pause.

Sparrows
But they were not beautiful

                Beat.

They
Looked
They looked

(looking up)

mmm...

Their feathers looked
Dry
Ruffled
I saw
The
A bird
It was

                Beat.

Really
Hard
Hard to

                Beat.

Concentrated
In
Picking
One grain that
It might like
And

                Beat.

It was
It was
It was
Small and
Messy
But I couldn’t
But I couldn’t
Help watching
It

(hands together, namaste)

and then it
jumped in
the sack
so I felt
I felt

(Hand on heart)

I felt good.

Posted by Brian Stefans at April 28, 2003 10:51 AM | TrackBack