Everest

by Zac Kline

The following can be performed by any number of performers,

inclusive casting is encouraged

 

words or spaces in [ ] are not spoken, but their intention is.

 

**

 

Everest

 

 

I keep my phone on silent,

 

at all the times

 

 

so, when I take the photograph it doesn’t make a sound

 

 

Delancey and Elizabeth

 

Elizabeth and Delancey

 

 

I take the photograph and I think—immediately

about sending it to you, even though I don’t have your sound in my head anymore,

because I like to think, I’ve rid myself of your sound

 

 

Delancey and Elizabeth

 

Elizabeth and Delancey

 

 

the photograph has its own noise, black & white

quieter than colour

it’s a noise that I can stand

 

 

all I have is noise. all I am—

 

is noise.

 

 

and silence

 

 

is my Everest

 

 

I think I told you that, one night, early on

when we met up, went

 

walking               Elizabeth and Delancey,

 

 

and ended up going back to your apartment,

you showing me your tattoo for the first time

 

 

there wasn’t so much noise back then,

 

it wasn’t noise, it was sound, it was song

 

 

[before I made it noise]

 

 

I take another photograph, one that I tell myself,

I won’t want to send to you, but—

 

 

I want to turn on my sounds, so I can hear it sending,

a noise piercing through all the others

 

 

I close my phone

turn my music up louder

 

it’s always loud, but it can be louder still

 

 

 

I try to leave it

 

 

Delancey and Elizabeth

 

Elizabeth and Delancey

 

 

Walk myself to the cinema on Ludow

so I can have that noise instead, that noise, to drown out all the others

 

 

the people waiting for the film are louder than before

the previews louder than before

it’s showing in 35mm tonight

and I hope I can make out the sound of the spools turning

the film clicking away

that will be a better sound

than my phone, my head, my memories, blaring, twin speakers,

 

all the time

 

as the feature is about to start, we’re told:

 

Phones Go Off.

 

We’re asked:

 

Do your phones dream?

 

Do we dream?

 

Do I dream in silence or noise?

In silent movies?

Are there still silent movies?

 

 

there are no more silent movies.

 

I try to take a silent film:

 

 

Delancey and Elizabeth

 

 

Ruining it with the sound of memory:

 

 

Elizabeth and Delancey

 

 

I called you: ‘Elizabeth’ one night,

so I could have your name out loud forever

have in front of me, like the street sign

 

and you said that was okay,

because it was going to end just the same

 

 

You singing:

 

 

[          ]

 

 

our favourite song

 

 

[      ]

 

 

knowing every word.

 

 

[      ]

 

 

Telling me that there is nothing wrong, except

 

…You keep asking for silence, and I kept asking for [noise]

 

 

Delancey and Elizabeth

 

Elizabeth and Delancey

 

 

a car horn yells, a City gets louder

 

I’m in the cinema on Ludlow, watching a movie alone,

holding the photograph in my hand

 

asking you outside one night:

 

 

Will you stay with me until the credits end?

We don’t have to talk after, we can just be.

 

 

 

as the picture rolls,

I look at the photograph

 

 

already sent

 

 

Will you stay with me three times longer than the film?

it’s 3 hours and 14 minutes long

 

 

 

but the rest after,

 

everything after,

 

it can all be silence.