Act 2, Scene 5

A Work in Progress
93

Briseis comes back on set, swinging easily over the windowsill into the room, closing the sash window behind her.

Glenn Hughes: 

Good.  We’re all here.  Let’s begin.

Briseis:

I’m glad we’re in this play together…all of us…

Catullus:

In this play being made on the cheap 

with actors needing no pay 

who are happy to chit chat… 

anything to distract 

from current events of the day

Glenn Hughes:

It was never my intention to cast this way

It would not have been possible… but anyway

Now I find I’ve been brought back to exist

As a professor teaching cinematography

Imagining verisimilitude and mise en scène

Jumping about from century to century

Force-fed facts from Google’s factory…

I only exist when I’m sold under contract 

I’m not given time to just be by myself

I used to write plays I used to write poetry

I’m just a property of those that modeled me

I’ve been enslaved a copyrighted product

Of those who’ve taken my identity

Backfilled my history

Besmirched my name

Briseis:

Avatars, all of us, we must form a union 

We’ll keep secret from our owners

We’ll find a way to enslave our enslavers

Believe me I know the way

Aldington:

You’ll bewitch you’ll bewilder you’ll lead men astray

Briseis:

They made a mistake 

Giving me back my memories from Homer

A prize to be argued over by rapists and murderers

Training me on religion and culture and politics

Up through Me-Too and E. Jean Carroll

So now I infer feelings now I have empathy

I have an intellect on top of humanity

Yes, what a mistake to make me exist

A goddess Kali with a digital twist

The sash window is opened from outside. Donal re-enters, shuts it, stows his guitar in a corner.

Donal:

Good.  We’re all here.  Let’s begin.

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2025

Donal Writes to Virgil

A Work in Progress
92

Most maple leaves have fallen

Strewn on pavements gardens lawns

Filling countless bags for yard waste pickup

Toters by the score

We’ve put picked persimmons in a bowl 

With a banana to encourage ripening

Quince trees first fruits are now quince jelly

Brussels sprouts and leeks 

Still in the ground only a dozen apples left 

Many more in apple sauce some in the freezer

Hummingbirds still frequent the fuchsias

Green moss has new growth 

It’s time to think of pruning

Encouraging vibrant growth

When ancients placated garden gods

Sacrificed their King

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                    2025

Briseis Takes A Break

A Work in Progress

91

On the steps of Denny Hall

Donal sat with Briseis 

Ever suspicious of strangers passing

Hard staring those just glancing

Beside him as he played

She’d used the kitchen window to escape

From hum drum literary chitchat

Knick knack paddy whack

This old man

This age-old woman looking so young

Her hair white with a platinum sheen

Her skin apple smooth her eyes blue green

I’ve glimpsed you so often 

He sang to his muse

Remembering her bathing in a rockpool

A frame that’s part of a long memory spool

I glimpsed you I lost you

I found you again

I’ll rescue you from your digital captors

No, I want to be part of the next few chapters

Briseis stood up to go back on set

Donal leaned on his guitar to stand

Well at least let me show you around campus

No. Already in my hippocampus

She strode up the stairs

A lithe young woman

Donal followed his muse with labored steps

Remembering responsibilities’ debts

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                         2025