ALICE IN STITCHES A VAGUE FUGUE
I.
alice in stitches on the carpet
a vague fugue
the squid
II.
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III.
such hair.
such jaw.
THE INFINITE WOMAN (Prologue)
O, LOVER! O, DEATH! or, A Tragic Account of the Life of The Infinite Woman in 1950, in 1850, in 2500 BCE, or, In this one heroine, Edison Marshall has created every woman with her natural gifts of beauty, passion, and power, or, Against the dispersed, contingent, and multiple existences of actual women, mythical thought opposed the Eternal Feminine, unique and changeless. If the definition provided for this concept is contradicted by the behavior of flesh-and- blood women, it is the latter who are wrong, or, Lilith, Lucia Riley, Kali, Lola Montero, Eve, Lola Montez, and Eliza Gilbert in the garden, in the sea, in the forest, in the mine pit, in the grave, or, I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end... 1
Each of us is a mirror to his own world. What scene would you choose? – Out of sight of land, I lost sight of my landmarks behind me and before. I had no sense of forward movement; the sea was all around me when I went to sleep and when I wakened; it changed with every least change of light and wind, but we remained a rocking, rolling island, moored amid its storms, calms, currents, and rolling waves. The clock of my heart kept ticking, but I did not look or listen. – The moonlight showed us the form and face of Kali under a stone cowl. She had four arms, each with a red-palmed hand; her eyes were red, and her tongue and face and breasts were stained with blood; her teeth were pointed fangs, and around her neck was a string of skulls and about her waist a girdle of twisted snakes. – A light that I had held slowly burned down. I could not see by it any more and began to doubt what it had shown me before. It was nothing like the sun, my bleak heart told me. It was an artificial light. – Again we were in the shadow, and soon floating into a heavy growth of moss and water grasses. Let me know the taste of the fruit of evil, that will fall into my hands when my soul is lost. See, I lie low in the rank, wet weed. I dared not look into the bleak mirrors. There came creeping a golden faun. – The sides of the shaft leaned slowly inward and pitched down. The derrick gave way and fell in twisted ruin. And my soul went from me – I thought it was the last laugh, and no one ever born could ever laugh again. 2
CHANTING AT THE CRYSTAL SALTON SEA
{text projected upon a blank stage}
THERE IS NOTHING THAT WILL KEEP US
ALIVE AS YOU EAT YOUR HARD BOILED
EGG DO NOT FORGET TO ENCRUST IT
WITH SALT CRYSTALS DO NOT FORGET
TO DIP THE EGG IN THE SALTON SEA
WE ALL WANT TO DEVOUR SOMETHING
TOXIC BELIEVE ME AN OTHER OURSELVES
THE TIME THIS SPACE A CLOSENESS
PLACE THE EGG ON A GLASS PLATE
TO FIND SALVATION MOUNTAIN TAKE
IMPERIAL ROAD THROUGH UNINCORPORATED
DESERT WASTELAND PAST BORDER PATROL
ABANDONDED NUCLEAR TEST SITE AIR SWARMING
YOU WILL PASS A SLAUGHTERHOUSE LANDSCAPE
HUMMING TOXIC DEAD ZONE IN SLAB CITY
YOU WILL FIND THE GLOWING TREES THE ANTS
EATING BLURRED EDGES OF GAS STATION MIRRORS
EVAPORATED SEA STILL THERE IS BEAUTIFUL TRASH
LAYERS AND LAYERS OF PLASTIC AND PAINT
THE SUN IS HIGH THE SHADOWS TALL THE SKY
PURE BLUE A NEON HEART SAYS GOD IS LOVE
SAYS JESUS IM A SINNER PLEASE COME UPON MY
BODY AND INTO MY HEART STILETTOS SINKING
INTO SOFT FUSCHIA FLOWER PODS THE TREES
NAKED AND HUMMING AND GLOWING BENEATH
TURQUOISE HILLS A GROTTO OF MINIATURE WORLDS
A TINY MAGIC SALT GLOBE DO NOT SHAKE IT
IT IS FRAGILE IT WILL BREAK IT WILL BURST
Katie Schaag is a poet, playwright, and multimedia artist. Her work has been published by Ugly Ducking Presse, Metatron, Rabbit Catastrophe Press, Vector Press, Requited Journal, Nat. Brut, Word For/Word, and Oxeye Press, staged at Hemsley Theatre, and exhibited at Woman Made Gallery, Co-Prosperity Sphere, and Little Berlin. In addition to her solo art practice, she has a collaborative practice with SALYER + SCHAAG; their four-month participatory project "Performing MMoCA" was part of Madison Museum of Contemporary Art's 2016 Wisconsin Triennial. She earned her PhD in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in performance studies and visual cultures. Her current research project, "Conceptual Theatre: Race, Gender, and Dematerialization," explores the political potential of thought experiments in African American avant-garde closet drama and feminist performance art. katieschaag.com.