So for the 31 plays in 31 days I thought I'd really just go ahead and shove a splinter under my fingernail. I did this by trying to write a play in iambic pentameter. Fool that I am. I did it. Sort of. But took hours. Lots more time than I should have wasted. But, in secret, I wish to write a one-act play in iambic pentameter. Well, I did until I wrote this short play. Hm. Here it is:
---
If I Were To Repeat
Myself by
Earl T. Roske
(Lights
up on Acacius, a dying gunslinger. He is alone)
ACACIUS
(Death
enters halfway through sonnet and stops to listen.)
My life has gone down a
path I'd not sought
Bushes of thorns I've
often forced my way
Through at risk of
penalties I have wrought
Reluctant yet knowing
I'd see this day
Yet as the chill begins
to creep from skin
To bone and the light
dims on this bright day
If there had been
another way to spin
The tale I've lived to
turn a different way
Then perhaps my hands
would be free from stain
Of powder and blood and
the grime of death
I would not then be here
my heart in pain
For all the hurt I carry
on my breast
What I would do if life
I could repeat
Things so different my
ending would be sweet.
DEATH
The choices you've made
you bear to the end
Wishing and dreaming
will change not a thing
ACACIUS
I see that death has
come to make amend
For making a puppet of
my sad being
Keep your apology for
someone more worthy
DEATH
There's no apology from
me made to you
You made all your
choices made them clearly
So I have come to
collect what is due
ACACIUS
I have worked like the
scythe there in your hand
Slicing a path marked
with tears stained with blood
An unwitting tool
reaping 'cross the land
Weeds of tombstones grow
now where once men stood
DEATH
If you thought your
actions would earn reward
Truly little you know of
who you are
Inside you are things
you have yet explored
ACACIUS
Explored I have done and
picked at each scar
This is not the man I'd
chosen to be
DEATH
Yet here you are with
your last sun setting
You're choices were
yours they don't rest with me
I am not your fate, I am
what's waiting
Within you lays choice
the fork of each path
That which is in you
guides your direction
It is the pen which
scribes your last paragraph
I am the result of all
people's action
Concern yourself not
where blame is to rest
ACACIUS
But my life is wasted,
what might have been
Torments my last like
some unwanted guest
DEATH
You would have chose
different if you'd foreseen
ACACIUS
I would have I know it
that I am sure
Violence is no life it
brings only pain
Better to be those who
strive and endure
DEATH
But those ways were not
the ways that you chose
ACACIUS
They were not. I wish
that things were different
DEATH
And you would not be you
if you'd become those
ACACIUS
I'd be living if my life
that way went.
DEATH
Again, we speak of what
is and what isn't
A past that's not and a
present that is
This is the path the
forks down which you went
Regret is just an
anti-catharsis
Look upon your life as
an adventure
Each human constructs
their own direction
And at the end must find
their own closure
Look and find a point of
celebration
Embrace the bright
embrace that which shines
ACACIUS
Not all that I have done
burns ugly black
That there has been some
light and good at times
Perhaps my regret can be
soothed and slacked
I die alone with no one
to see me on
To remember my name and
what I've done
DEATH
I am here as my duty
does beckon
In your last moment you
are not alone
The faces of those
you've treasured the most
Are there in your skull
to ease the passing
Let them serve to you as
if like a host
ACACIUS
I die then knowing
nothing is lasting
(Dies)
DEATH
All men are nothing but
a blink to time
A blink and the world
you knew is quick gone
The dreams and the hopes
pass with each chime
All fades away, the good
and the wrong
Through the passage of
time remains only I
For Death you all learn
is the true constant
From the first until the
end I'll stand by
For all through all time
a passing I grant
I remember each that
passes my way
Your stories I know and
never forget
Till the last one has
past, then on that day
I believe I'll know how
it is to regret
For I'll be the last as
death becomes death
None will stand beside
me for my last breath
(Exits)
(Lights
down)
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