ACT II
(in order of appearance) a siren
protests
seven trumpets
a dog / a cop leaf blowers trucks
chant
a speech
a body cam gunshots
a car crash
no crickets / a siren
“get on the ground”
“hold the line”
“when there’s other armed Americans with them”
“back up before you get smashed up”
“Today it’s time to stop singing and start swinging.”
“cause neither of them is for you”
“You’re voting for nobody.”
“It’s the ballot or the bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody.”
Now that all our tears have frozen, only hail and fire mingled with blood hit the ground. In the aftermath, the siren sings in our heads, since outside it is far too late: The fatal hope of struggle has drowned in seas turned red and the last tension of dissonance has burst.
Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet are about to sound!
But the last woe on earth, hiding in a bathtub in the abandoned house of your mind, will be tracked down. The dog invaded the space between your ears to search for the remaining splinters of life.
A scream or a reversed bullet inhaled at the rate of 0.25 percent. All rumors of the fight are compressed into a terrible blast of sound like a defibrillator channelling vital energy to revive a failing heart. Woe to those who discover that the rewind function failed to revive the dead.
What if instead of fire, hail, and blood, splintered sound particles would pierce the earth?
Apocalypse without resurrection.
Burnt shreds of digital files fall like ashes from the sky, blocking out the sun, poisoning the air. The crickets disappear, just as the fireflies disappeared before them. The siren’s remnants wail into the night and as we sleep, the ash suffocates us all. Finally the arc of equality is inescapable for everyone and nobody. November 2, 2020 is the cosmic catastrophe that follows July 4, 2020 by Andy Cowling.
John-Robin Bold, November 2020
credits:
released November 3, 2020
sound by Andy Cowling
text by John-Robin Bold
cover artwork by Merve Cowling
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