Slam Poem: I Remember the Zoo

I remember the zoo…

I am still young, my story hardly begun, as I weave among the forest of legs.

And these soft trunks, they obscure the beasts whose voices lure, assure me of great wonder ahead.

A light begins to shine behind, my confines, and my heart excites,

So with haste, I race to the front where the forest is replaced with a jungle that shakes,

And its branches and vines are entwined in designs that climb in my eager mind.

Sounds erupt in the air, from the creatures who spare no room for silence and I dare not deny their song.

I roar with them.

Soar with them.

And yet I am torn from them as the forest swarms again;

And I can feel their scorn borne of experience

And inflicted on those who contradicted what was predicted in day dreams.

But these dreams are like me, and unlike the bereaved, they can see and believe in colours that breathe.

And yet these dreams dream to leave unaware of how they with grieve the fleeting sheen through which they now see

For I yearn to return to the time without concern and a curiosity that still burned for the wild;

When I could still see the jungle,

How with life it quivered. Shivered. Delivered its identity.

How I would reach to breach the glass and wish to remain there for my life to pass

I remember the zoo…

Do you?

Quote Dialogue

A: Is Sean coming with us tonight?

B: I doubt it, the last time I talked to him was “too busy to breathe”.

A: Still? What does he have to do?

 B: Some school stuff, some shifts at Tony’s, you know how it is.

A: I have that too! I still find a couple hours to spend at the movies with friends.

B: Well, he doesn’t have it all wrong, I mean his marks are miles better than ours, and he’s got a lot more in the bank.

A: What’s the point of having the money if you’re never going to spend it?

B: Now he’ll have some for when he needs it

A: He needs it now! For this! With us!

B: He’s only thinking about the future

A: [sigh] People here are funny. They work so hard at living they forget how to live.

Everyday task and the human experience

The wind created by speeding cars whipped my hair into my face. I stood by the edge of the road, waiting for my bus to arrive. It was always late, and I would always panic once the clock hit quarter after. I wondered if the bus was always on time and I was just too stubborn to change my schedule.

I could see the bus in the distance. It pulled up slowly and I hopped on. The driver printed out a transfer ticket for me. I didn’t need it, but not wanting to be rude or wasteful I thanked him and took it anyways. I’m not sure how this wasted less, but it made me feel better.

The bus was crowded and I was left to stand in the aisle, people packed in behind me. I turned down the volume of my music, not sure if everyone else could hear it, and worried they may be bothered by it if they could.

Photo Logline

A girl awakes to the sound of her recently deceased older sister’s voice on the phone. In trying to free her sister who has become trapped within the house, she too becomes trapped. The sisters struggle for freedom against a family that think their youngest has lost her mind, and the appearance of a dark presence that brings with it a dark family secret.

Logline

Accustomed to her life on top, Violet is devastated when a sour relationship with her boss lands her in a new city where she is left to wade through the waste in her heels. Confidant in her powers she plans to seduce her newest boss, but her advances are rejected. Crushed by this, Violet has a new plan, one to seek revenge the new man in her life and teach him that no one rejects her, but it doesn’t go as smoothly as she would hope.