Caustic Ophelia (Orpheus Remix 20.4.23)

from The Brick Dialogues by Rolf Hughes, Rachel Armstrong

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about

This poem is taken from a longer sequence titled “The Brick Dialogues”, which delves into the ‘character’ of metabolisms via Shakespearian heroines. The ‘brick dialogues’ are transgressive, optimistic, whispering about the eternal exchanges of renewal that link the cycles of life and death such as love, fertility, restlessness and the ‘emotionally charged’ nature of matter in flux.

lyrics

Caustic Ophelia

– Let us acknowledge it.

– A spore of pollen inside a balloon.
– A drum inside a bloody room.
– The whole world becoming stone.
– Did you think it might rise?
– I wanted to sink.
– Here’s rue for you; there’s none for me.
– Your eyes, poor Ophelia! Blasted. Ecstatic!
– Whatever worm eats or impregnates–
– I sucked that honey–
– under that bed–
– his breezy vows
– sweet bells jangling
– caressing my river’s silvery skin
– disordering the petals you plucked
– these petals I plucked from the wind
– mulching – turning to rot, or–?

– The blue bacteria.

– Blasted mulch.
– She’s drying out.
– Dying to dry out.

– Heat-seeking.
– An open coffin within which many rivers–

– Heartbreak hotel. Caustic soda. Copper. Ophelia!
– What?

– Nothing.
– Nothing will come of nothing!

– Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies.
– Good night.

– This artificial heart.
– What of it?
– It’s not nothing.

– Good night, good night.

Text: Rolf Hughes

credits

from The Brick Dialogues, released January 12, 2019
Voice: Rachel Armstrong, Rolf Hughes

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ex:lab Ghent, Belgium

ex:lab creates new experimental practices, pedagogies and performances, often involving improvisations and/or collaborators who share a sense of indifference to conventions.

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