Pop Song

by Rami Metal

An excerpt from his upcoming play Betty My Love, Betty My God

(Kazumi flickers on the dark stage of a small nightclub of one. She sways to the music in her head. She is almost sleepy, almost awake, almost alone.)

Kazumi

This is my song of Arabel. I call it the Arabel song. I sing it at night before I go sleeping. I sing it in my temple when I am lonely. I sing it at funerals and housewarming parties. I sing Arabel through my teeth and I roll her song over my tongue like a caramel swirl on a violin. I and Arabel. She watches me when I go for the walks that I go on that I don’t often come back from. She holds my hand as I walk step by step through the highway through the brook through the farm that we used to live on. And Arabel took me away from the farm and away from Betty and she takes me to new places and dusts them off and gives them names and tells me to touch the maps so I don’t get lost when the lights go out. Because she knows that I am a waking girl. She knows that I am a girl of the day. That I am a bright glowing pop song of promise. I am Kazumi and I am Arabel’s and she covers my sun and she covers my eyes and she hides me from Betty in the dark dark days. I am Arabel’s and she gives me straw to sleep on and her breast to suck on. And she lets me kiss her belly button and tells me to dive in til I’m almost drowned. Then she rescues me. Then she holds me in her hands and rocks me back and forth til I am sleeping again. Til my pop song shimmers away into night quiet. Til I am my own again. Til morning. Til I explode. (the lights get bright. Brighter than Kazumi. She disappears into the light and sleeps.)