WILLIAM WALSH / ELEUTHÉRIA
(A silence)
My life is perfect. (Pause)
Because I accept it as it is.
I am happy where I am.
(With pride) Very, very happy.
The sunshine is shining.
Because it is what it is.
I am free. I’ll never be free.
(Sadly) It's a life eaten up by its freedom.
(Pause) You make my life impossible.
What a beautiful feeling it’s bringing
All the birds in the sky are singing.
(Violently) Two birds with one stone.
That would spoil the death throes.
I want nothing—I can do nothing—I feel nothing—I am nothing.
(Sputtering) I have every intention of amazing nobody.
(Together) Eleuthéria the fire is burning.
Eleuthéria the tables are turning
My darling, my darling. My limbo.
(Slackly) The longer you wait, the better it is.
(In a doctrinal tone) A new day is dawning.
Because it is time for a change.
With new consciousness forming.
(A fierce-sounding voice)
There comes a new day.
Oh, we got to keep on trying.
When the children are cold and alone.
(Thunderingly) And are crying.
I do not know what you mean.
When you speak of life and of living.
I was born too soon. Much too soon.
I promise, I promise. (A pause)
You got to understand.
I do not lay claim to originality.
Sing! And please do not start crying.
(Forcefully) Don't cry!
Eleuthéria the bells are ringing.
(Angrily) If you would be good enough to ring.
(Reassured) Eleuthéria the people are singing.
One day the former, another day the latter.
But I'll feel myself ceaselessly becoming so.
I am searching for my ideas. They are scattered.
Does there exist another subject of conversation?
Eleuthéria the people are yearning.
(Still pushing) Eleuthéria this world keeps on turning.
(At the height of excitation) Turning.
It’s madness. It’s a little like music.
What a beautiful feeling it’s bringing.
All the birds in the sky are singing.
(Grandiloquently) You got to understand.
Eleuthéria the fire is burning.
(Straining) He’s raving.
Eleuthéria the tables are turning
(Piteously) There is no table?
Eleuthéria the bells are ringing.
The people keep singing.
The fire is burning.
The tables are turning.
The sun is setting.
To a little prayer.
My life will be long and horrible.
(Still standing) Got to keep on.
Keep on keeping on.
Dancing on graves.
(Worried) A meaning for it must be found.
Otherwise we might as well ring down the curtain.
(A silence)
(Exit)
CURTAIN
Notes: Eleuthéria is an Ancient Greek word for liberty. Eleuthéria was Samuel Beckett’s first full-length play written in French, 1947. “Eleuthéria” is a song on Lenny Kravitz’s third album, Are You Gonna Go My Way, 1993.
William Walsh is the author of Forty-Four American Boys (Outpost 19), Stephen King Stephen King, Unknown Arts, Ampersand, Mass, Pathologies, Questionstruck (all from Keyhole Press), and Without Wax (Casperian Books). His work has appeared in Artifice, LIT, Quarterly West, Hobart, Caketrain, Juked, New York Tyrant, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, as well as anthologies like New Micro: Norton Anthology of Exceptionally Short Fiction, the &NOW Anthology, and Dzanc’s Best of the Web.