"You May Not Undertand"
By The Blood and The Bones
you may not understand
because you did not know me
before I became conditioned to abandonment
for being singular
different
and before I knew to accept longing and lying as permanent
you did not know the me that desired to become easily handled
as I had always felt as if I were too jagged edged, too vivid
in a world that likes control
when I was young and impressionable
I’ll admit
I believed those who said it would be easier
so I made my mouth tiny
my hands small
my back bent
I held the words and desires hidden
even when my tongue felt heavy or loose
and even though I had
for maybe too long
kept to myself the truth
I cut deep in
attempting to carve out the want and wild
and endeavoring to forget
what it was like to be authentic
when what I longed for was to be uncultivated
and still be loved for it
but they would have none of it
I was not this that you see
not this me at all
but a mirror
altered into something that could be carried just so someone might hold me
and not leave
The Blood and the Bones is the pseudonym for a former lover of a US servicemember. Follow her here.
What’s happening at VetRep…
Catch our interview with Logan Vath this week on the Savage Wonder Podcast.
Get your tickets to our first staged reading of the 2023 Parlor season, Speed-The-Plow, by David Mamet here.
Our first full-length playwriting contest winner, Brat by Jason Pizzarello is now going to be our first co-production workshop reading with Rockland County’s Penguin Rep Theatre. Directed by Bob Balaban (The Exonerated, Gosford Park, The French Dispatch), the readings will star Edie Falco (The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, Avatar: The Way of Water). Workshop readings are scheduled Saturday, April 15 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 16 at 2 p.m. Seating is limited. Tickets are $30 ($25 for veterans) and can be purchased online at penguinrep.org or by calling the Penguin box office at (845) 786-2873. Tickets can be purchased here.
We are currently offering multiple dates for our online and in-person Playwriting for Veterans classes, and our Acting for Beginners class is now being offered weekly every Saturday from 10am-12pm. Registration details can be found here.