Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Exquisite Corpse #1

This is an Exquisite Corpse, "a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed." We got three pages to write and then send the last line for the other to start. Here's what it turned into!

Huck and Glen, two lumberjacks, stand side by side with axes slung over their shoulders. They look at each other and nod in agreement, it’s time to go to work. They remain stationary and trees file themselves into line behind them. They begin getting cut down by these two great lumberjacks. The line of trees to get chopped keeps replenishing itself.

HUCK
Hile!

Glen
Hodle!

HUCK
Gunga gunga!

GLEN
Dim dodle!

HUCK
I chop fast!

GLEN
I chop true!

HUCK
Of all the lumberjacks in the country!

GLEN
We’re the best two!
Horf!

HUCK
Dorf!

GLEN
Mufta mufta!

HUCK
Zam bazang!

GLEN
We love to do work!

HUCK
And work what we love you see!

GLEN
Chop!

HUCK
Chap!

GLEN
Chippity choo!

HUCK
We are the best lumberjacks!

GLEN
The best lumberjack two!

All the trees have fallen. They set their axes into the stumps, slap their hands clean in unison, and pull out their lunches. They begin to eat ravenously. Huck looks at Glen and then looks at the audience. He steps forward and pulls out a piece of paper.

HUCK
I wrote this this morning;
Under a shimmering yellow sun, I feast upon it’s warm abundance.
My young petals shine a deep pink as the new morning’s dew begins to evaporate.
The day is beginning it’s terminal momentum and soon dainty Esmerelda will come upon me.
The song she will sing will be one of untouched youth and abundant feeling.
Spring’s triumph guides me ever higher, ever higher still.

I can’t stop writing stuff like this (looks back at Glen) and I definitely can’t tell her about it.

He returns to his seat and eats his lunch sheepishly. Glen looks at the fallen wood and then at the audience and walks forward.

GLEN
My Dad took me for my first trip into the woods. I was so small and everything seems to loom over me and was bent and twisted as if they were no rules. We walked for a while and he put me on his shoulders cause I was getting tired and grumpy. I thought my Dad was a giant but even on top of his shoulders, I still couldn’t see the top of the trees. He finally stopped at a tree and placed a hand against its bark regarding it with respect. He set me down and I felt these trees were something to be respected and feared, but my father lifted the ax he was carrying and thwacked it into the trunk. I watched him and when the blow landed it seemed like the whole world vibrated from the force but him. He had struck the strike that shook the whole world. The tree fell and it was then that I finally say the top. I remember the smell of it the most; clean, essential, and sweet.  

A bell rings and more trees file in to be cut down. The lumberjacks set down their lunches and pick up the axes. They begin to chop again. A tree enters with a bird on it in Huck’s line. He get’s more mesmerized with it until it’s in front of him to get chopped down. Huck hesitates and looks off to the distance.

HUCK
To be unbounded in a world with weightless bones.
An invisible infinity as a matter of travel, home, and love.

GLEN
Hey Huck, what’s the hold up? You gotta sneeze! (The audience roars with laughter)

HUCK
Haha, no. I just got a splinter in my eye..

GLEN
Splinter?! More like log?! (The audience goes nuts again)

Huck silently tries to get bird to fly off the tree before he chops it down. It doesn’t move.

GLEN
Hey Huck! (The audience waves their hands in front of their face nervous for the joke to come and laughing more.) If you need a minute, I can go and grab my Grandma to cover for you! (The joke pays off and audience is in stitches.)

HUCK (Embarassed)
That won’t be necessary.

Huck begrudgingly chops the tree down and in doing kills the bird. He continues on chopping down trees with tears in his eyes. His pace quickens as he loses himself in the work. Glen notices this and gets excited and thinks of it as a challenge. They both chop furiously and the trees they hit go flying in a cloud of splinters. Glen begins to get overwhelmed and the trees start to bunch and crowd her. Huck is lost to the chopping.

GLEN
Help!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013