Play
- Play
In Sophocles vengeanceprovokes hatred, retribution,satisfaction.
Daughter against daughter.Son against father.Father against child.
A sister on her plot of landtends citrus and bananas,nurtures judgment.
A brother in a vaultwithin a vault, guards,tends secrets.
My dying mother pointsto her jewelry chest, says,"Take whatever you wish."
I cannot make my fingersopen the drawer.She opens it for me.
Each day a rehearsal.Missed cues.Dropped lines.
Stumbles and startsamidst the fluencies.The dialogue coach [End Page 41]
ecstatic and thenworried. The dramaturgfrantic but quiet.
The actors removedor tear-streaked in turn.
In the theatre behind meone woman whispers,"Every conversation
we have as a familycontains every otherconversation we have
had as a family."Epic. Archetypal.And satisfaction of a sort,
with sleepyet another rehearsalbeyond the finale.
Antigone cries,"Come, let us waitno longer." [End Page 42]
Jill Peláez Baumgaertner is the author of six collections of poetry, the most recent From Shade to Shine (Paraclete 2022). She has written libretti for various musical compositions including a cantata for composer Michael Gandolfi, which was performed by the Boston Symphony Chamber Orchestra. She is Professor of English Emerita and former Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies at Wheaton College (IL) and currently serves as poetry editor of The Christian Century.
