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Sunset Boulevard

EMPIRE STATE

Before the viewing galleries were encased

in bullet-proof glass from ceiling to floor

there was wire mesh – with interstices

big enough through which to aim a lens,

and for Manhattan’s airs to freely pass.

Wannabe jumpers were deterred and jokers

keen to fly a kite above Fifth Avenue.

 

Late one sunny October afternoon,

when the leaves had begun to turn, we saw,

as felons might in an exercise yard,

the islands – Roosevelt, Staten, Liberty,

Ellis, and Manhattan itself – reduced,

and the sun begin to set over Jersey,

Ohio, the imperial geometry

of the states, a sentient jigsaw –

and imagined, as prisoners might,

autumnal prairie grass in Kansas,

eagles above the snow-line in the Rockies,

neon-lit diners on Sunset Boulevard.

 

 

HERRINGS

HERRINGS  is a very short stage play. There are three characters: H. Griffiths, M. Bogush and Voice Off. H. Griffiths speaks first:

I am H. Griffiths, the celebrated writer of novels of romantic, unrequited love. What you are about to see took place in the bridal suite of a 5 star hotel on Sunset Boulevard. It was during the afternoon of July 21st 1969 – the day mankind first walked on the moon.

You can download this stage play as a .pdf