EIGHT HUMAN FRAILTIES

SCENE 1

Cynthia, sitting on the sun porch in her favorite rattan chair
in the luxury of idle hours, staring at her prized Yucca plant
in a dazed haze of transitory images, contemplating death.

Perspiration on her forehead at the predicament
of the brutal act that she imagines will set her mind free,
and relinquish all her self-imposed guilt.

SCENE 2

Deanne, nervously biting the quick of her nails,
cigarette after cigarette, her whole being anxious.

Her mind in a state of unbearable anxiety, hands shakily
reach for the cup of strong dark coffee.

She ponders, how much can I get from granddame’s
silver tea set and her beautiful heirloom emerald broach?

I can’t sell them, but I have to get some money.
Her hands clammy and wet, brush over her ruffled
dark brown hair.

Tears begin to roll down her face. If only I didn’t have
this habit. This addiction to the opium and the cannabis
is doing very little to take off the edge.

Oh Fuck It!

SCENE 3

The millionaire Carlson, now on the bandwagon, his latest
philosophy; never a drop of wine shall caress these lips.

So as an abstraction from his addiction he cavorts
and is in cahoots with this foolhardy chap from Belgium.
Who is verbose about his powder puff indiscretions
with the same sex and his affinity for masochistic and
sadistic pleasures.

He feels his emotions and decisions have run amok,
and there’ll be a premium he’ll have to pay,
and not with his money.

SCENE 4

Anita and Donovan had a fearsome argument while staying
at the Astoria Hotel. Each biting piece of dialogue filled
with bitter contempt, stabbing at each other’s heart.

Anita to the point of tears, while Donovan brooded
over his beer with nothing more to say.

No fault lay upon his chest, only comments made in jest.

Anita will make him pay the price, for his eyes taking
in the sights of the beauteous, Aphroditic author
with a very lush bosom, in the lobby of the Astoria.

Dam, dam, dam, will she ever let this end?

SCENE 5

Wilhelmina, with her righteous probity, queries into the
psychoanalytic realms of her mind and heart.

Guilt lay behind every shadowed corner of her psyche
over the tryst with this married man from Vancouver.

Her liaisons with married men have been great and many
and had never bothered or troubled her before, but now
to defrock the tapestry of mental complexities has made
her soul unrest

No heroine with laudatory laurels, had she been to the
many men whose pleasures she had obliged,
that of course their wives had forsaken for the children,
the house and the headaches.

She chuckled to herself as tears releasable poured
from orbs of remorse.

She the dramatist, had she not portrayed the damsel in distress
that had lured the men into her web?

Why should her heart ponder over ethics and morality now?

SCENE 6

Fernando, from Argentina, seventeen years of age,
prostitution as his trade, exchanging favors for coins of gold,
he feels he’s cleaver but yet he knows, the very lovers have
exploited him in every way. They the ones who chose to pay.

His bedazzling smile of sunshine behind the façade of
insuppressible rage, with agony smoldering beneath the veneers
of that very smile.

Some day, just some day, this inhumane contamination of my soul
will cease its monotonous game of exchangeable merchandise.

SCENE 7

Penelope renders herself helpless every time she slashes at her
physical arm, mind disconnected from her psyche under the premise
of punishment. She feels her mother would approve.

She, at that very moment, becomes the spectator not the participant.
The impenetrable discomfort gives her the sensation of feeling alive.
No blatant tears of empathy for self will be allowed.

Right become wrong, and wrong becomes right.

SCENE 8

The office of Doctor Thomas Judson, M.D.
A preeminent theorist, on group psychotherapy and cognitive therapy.
A small cozy room with Aztec collectibles, and artifacts that hang
on the walls and overcrowd the bookshelves.

The drapes usually closed, alluding to a protected and intimate
environment.

The eight people with unique and individual personalities have
been carefully chosen by Doctor Judson, for this Psychotherapy
Group for they all share a commonality of similitude.

That they, amongst themselves, with the input of each other, and
Doctor Judson, will possibly unravel the complexity of their
complex minds.


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Words Used: Cynthia Deanne Anita Donovan Wilhelmina Fernando
Penelope Carlson Judson luxury yucca dazed perspiration predicament
brutal relinquish nervously anxious anxiety silver emerald opium
cannabis millionaire bandwagon cahoots foolhardy verbose powder puff
affinity fearsome argument astoria dialogue contempt fault beauteous
aphrodite author righteous probity defrock tapestry heroine laudatory
laurel releasable dramatist argentina bedazzling sunshine insupressible
rage agony inhumane contamination monotonous renders arm premise
punishment spectator impenetrable discomfort blatant empathy
preeminent theorist aztec collectible alluding being room chuckle