CHARGE
A monologue from the
play by Eric Kaiser
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
with the author's permission. All inquiries should be directed
to the author at: vladigogo@hotmail.com |
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PIERRE: Look, I don't need you or anyone else to tell
me about me. I don't need you to think that without your help
I wouldn't be where I am now. I can do fine without your help,
I got a GED, I went to a community college with money I earned
at a warehouse, I didn't go to Harvard, I didn't get a scholarship
and I'll be goddamned if you think you can take any credit for
where I am today. [Pause.] When I was a boy, I lived in
a bad place. Broken down cars, broken down refrigerators and
broken down lives were on half of the front lawns of my little
street. Well my mother planted a garden. She wanted people to
see color before they went to work. She wanted to send the message
out that beauty can grow where it wants. She would work from
6am-5pm, she would come home and cook me and my siblings dinner,
help us with our homework. She was pissed off half the time and
tired the rest, but we ate and got our homework done. [Pause.]
When we went to bed she went out to that garden for hours
fixing it up. Pissed off and tired. But it was worth it all for
five minutes of beauty at the start of the day. [Pause.]
Then, whatever and whoever drove on to the garden crashed in
the side of our room, and looted what they could. My mother fixed
up the room, fixed up the garden. But she was forced to cover
it up with a giant ugly iron fence. [Pause.] And what
do you think that told all the people driving to work each day.
Beauty can't be shared. Beauty is a commodity. Beauty is property.
And every day from then on they saw that fence, and all the flowers
jailed and wanting. [Pause.] I want to free beauty, free
hope. I want you to be able to see beauty also. But we gonna
get there together, you ain't controlling me, I aint controlling
you. Got it?
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MONOLOGUES BY ERIC KAISER |
