Explore "Emotional Monologue" by Maxwell Bodenheim on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ _A man is sitting within the enigmatic turmoil of a railroad station. / His face is narrow and young, and his nose, lips, and eyes carved to / a Semitic sharpness, have been sundered by a bloodless catastrophe. / A traveling-bag stands at his feet. Around him people are clutching / farewells and shouting greetings. Within him a monologue addresses an / empty theatre._
/ I am strangling emotions / And casting them into the seats / Of an empty theatre. / When my lifeless audience is complete, / The ghosts of former emotions / Will entertain their dead masters. / After each short act / A humorous ghost will fly through the audience, / Striking the limp hands into applause, / And between the acts / Sepulchral indifference will mingle / With the dust upon the backs of seats. / Upon the stage a melodrama / And a travesty will romp / Against a back-drop of fugitive resignation. / Climax and anti-climax / Will jilt each other and drift / Into a cheated insincerity. / Sometimes the lights will retire / While a shriek and laugh / Make a martyr of the darkness.