Savage

(A man and a woman are sitting on a brown leather sofa, he on the left and she on the right. They are in front of the audience. He dresses in black and wears a lion mask. She wears a green shirt and a blue skirt and wears a HARE mask. The back wall is decorated with record covers of several years.)

LION: Are you finally going to confess to her?

HARE: (She crosses her feet and hands.) I don't know.

LION: You'll have to tell her.

HARE: Don't make me dizzy about it. I'm sick . Everything has its time. It's like baking a cake, it needs its baking time. You can't take it out early because it will crumble. You have to wait for the right moment, no more and no less.

LION: There are times when it is necessary to take a step forward because the situation is screaming for it.

(HARE gets up and stays silent watching the album covers.)

HARE: Do you know what Patti Smith's first album was?

(Pause.)

HARE: There's the cover of that album. It's called Horses. An album that she recorded in 1975 and that marked an era. The queen of Punk. Now Patti is Mrs. Smith. A sweet seventy-one year old woman who reads the Bible and is only interested in her family and poetry.

LION: (Uncomfortable.) I don't know what you mean by that. I don't give a shit about Patti Smith and Mrs. Smith and Punk shit. I only care about today and a little bit about tomorrow.

(She sits to his left. Under the cover of Horses.)

HARE: I mean that the life we're living today will have nothing to do with the life we're going to live forty years from now. Many times we think that we are one way and one morning we wake up being another, without recognizing ourselves in the mirror.

LION: You don't need to be very smart for that. I just want to know when you are going to take the step. It's not very complicated to answer that question.

HARE: I will do it tonight.

LION: (Surprised.) Tonight?

HARE: Yes, tonight. She will come to the party. Although she doesn't know I'll be around. I told her I couldn't come, that I had a last-minute job complicated.

LION: Why didn't you tell me anything?

(HARE stands up and looks at the cover of Patti Smith's Horses.)

HARE: It's funny how your life changes. One day you're the queen of Punk and you live a wild and dissolute life and then, with time, you take off the studs, the ridges, the greñas and you become a completely different person. The Queen of the Holy Bible.

LION: Can you answer me?

HARE: Yes, life changes you. Yesterday a caterpillar, today a chrysalis and tomorrow a butterfly.

LION: (Angry.) Fuck, leave the fucking philosophy and answer my question! Why the hell didn't you tell me anything?

(HARE sits on Leon's right and crosses his legs. She puts his hand on her knee and gives her two touches.)

HARE: Calm down. I didn't tell you anything because I thought about it this afternoon. Then I went to buy the masks and called her. You know the rest.

LION: Why did you tell her you weren't coming?

HARE: I want to observe her for the last time. See how she acts without me in front of her. Maybe I'm looking for a reason, a justification. I don't know. She will come with a Cacatua mask. We bought ourselves two similar masks for this feast. One with a red beak and the other with a blue beak.

LION: How do you think she'll take it when you tell her?

HARE: I don't know. I would take it very badly. I'd grab her by the hair and slap her a few times. If it's hard to digest being left, it's even harder to be left for a person of the opposite sex. It's an explosive cocktail wherever you take it.

LION: It's that your transformation is not normal.

HARE: I recognize it, but you know: caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly. We can't fight against internal transformations. We have to accept them because if we don't, we go crazy and we would be hypocrites. (Pause.) I don't want to go crazy, let alone be a hypocrite. I respect her a lot to continue with this farce.

LION: It's going to be a good one. You know that, don't you?

HARE: Yes, I know, but I'm ready. I've been training since I slept with you. That's when I knew my story with her was over.

Image source: Pixabay 

Viene la aurora

Ahí viene la aurora, despojada del sin sentido,
a entregarnos las luces que no son las de ayer,
otra entrega salvadora,
a decirnos que somos menos,
aunque nos creamos más que ayer,
a mostrarnos los pasos del andar,
primero uno, después otro, y luego otro,
sin detenerte, siguiendo la luz,
hasta entregarnos a la noche y descansar.

Sí, descansar, para reconciliarnos con nosotros,
con nuestros queridos monstruos,
que llevamos siempre tan dentro,
apaciguados y calmarlos con nuestro sueño.

Luego la aurora tocará a nuestra puerta,
un paso, siempre un paso, después otro,
hasta el amanecer.

Vivir para encontrar el sentido del amanecer,
de lo nuevo que se escucha en la aurora,
hasta encontrar el camino y volver a perderlo.

Fuente de las imágenes: fotografía sacada con un Acer Liquid Z63

Don't play

(Union Station Square. Six o'clock in the morning)

WOMAN: (Take out the mobile phone. Talk to yourself.) Shit, I'm out of battery! (She go through her purse. She pulls out a piece of paper that is folded in two. She unfolds it and reads it aloud.) Here it is clear: station Union Square and I am in that station. Then go out and take 14th Street to Union Square Street, then up 15th Street to Daryl Roth Theatre. It's easy. (She screams.) Easy?

(A man disguised as Batman turns when he hears the scream. They spend a few moments looking at each other. She approaches the man.)

WOMAN: Do you speak Spanish?

BATMAN: (With a hoarse voice and a lot of accent.) A little.

WOMAN: (Speak slowly.) I need to go to the Daryl Roth Theater on 15th Street.

BATMAN: It's close by. You have to go up there and get out of the station. (He point at the exit with the index finger of your right hand.) Then turn left, continue straight and then left again.

(Silence.)

WOMAN: Are you an actor?

BATMAN: No, I'm not an actor. I'm a Superhero.

WOMAN: (Unbelieving.) Superhero? (Pause.) Well, you could help me get to my destination. I'm lost and I don't want to miss my first audition in New York. I'm an actress.

BATMAN: I can't. My working day is over.

WOMAN: Don't superheroes work around the clock?

BATMAN: No, that's a myth. It's impossible to work twenty-four hours. We also have to rest.

WOMAN: Do you have a mobile phone? I just need to call my friend. Mine has a dead battery.

BATMAN: Yes, I have a last generation Batphone.

WOMAN: (Strange.) What is a Batphone?

BATMAN: A normal mobile phone, but with many features.

WOMAN: Can I borrow it?

BATMAN: No, I can't. It is only for my personal use.

WOMAN: I have an emergency and you are a Superhero.

BATMAN: Yes, I am a Superhero and you do not have an emergency. Not knowing how to get to a place is not an emergency. What you have is ignorance, but it's normal when you first arrive in a country you don't know. Many aspects of the country are ignored.

WOMAN: (Angry.) Are you really not going to lend me the phone?

BATMAN: No, I'm very sorry. (They hear the sound of the train.) Also, here comes my train. Good luck with the audition and remember to be more convincing. The actors have to be.

WOMAN: (Raising the tone of voice.) Fuck off! Do you find that convincing?

(The woman turns and leaves without waiting for Batman's answer. She leaves the scene. Batman is left alone on the verge, the stage gradually darkens to total darkness. In the background you can hear the sound of the subway arriving at the station.)

Image source: El País. Natan Dvir 

The fishermen's boat

The work of the fishermen deserves a monument.

Photograph taken with Acer Liquid Z630

Autumn flowers

If you look closely you will always find a beautiful flower.

Photograph taken with Acer Liquid Z630

Sliding knot

He got home early and went down to the garage. He took the rope he had bought the day before. He took it at one end and made a sliding knot. He checked that it worked. Then he caught the bench, climbed up with the rope and tied it to the central beam that crossed the garage from side to side. He tested the strength of the knot by pulling it three times in a row. Then he grabbed the sliding knot with both hands and pulled the stool. He hung for a few moments until he let go.
He looked at the rope for a few seconds and left his mind blank. He turned around. He went to a corner of the garage where there was the punching bag he had bought second-hand, grabbed it and, with a lot of effort, hooked it into the slipknot. He looked at the sack and smiled. He thought it was time to resume boxing training.

Image source: own

Las máscaras

Estás ausente y no te veo, ni siquiera siento tu aliento.
Quizás te moriste sin yo darme cuenta.
Como una momia petrificada estás junto a mí,
que ya no escucha ni siente,
solo preocupada de qué dicen los espejos.

Quizás todo empezó con el juego de las máscaras.
Aquel juego que comenzamos,
cuando empezamos a cavar la tumba de nuestro amor.
Trescientas cincuenta y cinco paladas,
paladas de desencuentro y desprecio.
Ni una más ni una menos.

Las máscaras que fuimos comprando a plazos,
en los mercados de la insatisfacción y la indolencia.
Las máscaras que nos permitían seguir respirando,
viviendo una vida con el crédito agotado,
mientras recogíamos del suelo las pieles muertas de nuestros encuentros,
para seguir hasta hartarnos, vomitar e intentar despertar
de este coma inducido por el tedio.

Es hora de acabar con el juego,
romper nuestras máscaras,
para darnos una oportunidad de alcanzar la quimera de la felicidad.

Reconocer que estamos muertos,
que nos morimos hace mucho tiempo,
enterrarnos y descansar.
Después vendrá el tiempo de resucitar.

Fuente de las imágenes: propia