Poem 2 (Loneliness)
Artist: Alisa Amor
Title: Poem 2, (Loneliness)
Completed: March 2018
Running Time: 3:40
This is a demo of the penultimate musical number. During this piece, Rosario has a sword fight with her shadow self which she names “Loneliness.” They end the duel by becoming allies and declaring that they must be one with Mother Earth; Rosario has found inner peace before her last moment.
The song will be performed by two singers each playing an aspect of Rosario’s mind, plus the chorus which will include men and women.
Poem 2 (Loneliness)
My house, a hive where the only bee that flies
is silence.
Loneliness is sitting on my couch
and messing up my sheets
she is lying on my bed again
and she opens the book ,to the page
where it says
the name of my fight
this duel is to the death.
When loneliness is thirsty, she says cry for me
as she waits deep inside of all my mirrors
and so carefully she closes all my windows
she makes sure no light can ever enter.
Loneliness, my enemy, she rises up
like a sword she wants to wound me.
She’s like a noose around my neck
and she is strangling me.
I am not the innocent one
who drinks the water
I don’t wake up with the clouds
these vines of mine will never rise above their borders
I’m all alone in here, surrounded by these walls
my doors are closed forever;
all alone I break bread on the table
all alone when it’s time to light the lamps
all alone I say my prayers every night
and I receive the visit of the devil.
Sometimes my enemy, she pounces,pounding with her fists
holding me down, asking and asking until her voice is hoarse
punching and punching me
with all her stubborn questions.
One day, yeah I’ll shut my mouth, but not before, I’ve said
the man walking down the street, is my brother.
I live on this same earth as the mother earth
no one, with my enemy can condemn me
to be a barren island lost somewhere between the seas.
No one can lie and claim that I didn’t fight her
down to the very last drop of my blood.
Deeper than my skin and underneath my bones I have loved.
More than my mouth and all these words
more than this frustrated knot of my tormented sex.
I’m not going to die of sickness
or old age, misery or exhaustion.
I’m going to die of love,
I’m going to give myself to love,
it’s where we all come from.
I won’t be embarrassed by these empty hands
or this solitary cell that they call “Rosario”
on the lips of the wind my true name is
the Tree of many Souls.
Original poem by Rosario Castellanos. Translation and music by Alisa Amor