(i)
CASSANDRA:
My lips rush the night, skull empty-
ing, wide, cold, yolks
gone, was it for this?
is like the moment when
is like the when
is like the
CHORUS:
you amaze me
CASSANDRA:
Apollo!
CHORUS:
lust?
CASSANDRA:
shame!
CHORUS:
come on
CASSANDRA:
we wrestled!
CHORUS:
conceived?
CASSANDRA:
spat him out!
CHORUS:
but still he?
CASSANDRA:
ah my gift!
CHORUS:
bad?
CASSANDRA:
(never) believed!
CHORUS:
oh but we
CASSANDRA:
[screams]
was
it for this the skull glows wide
I know that smell O clear
nightingale
gods wrapt her
in wing a life with no sting but for
me waits SCHISM
of the 2 edged was it
for this the skull blows
wide I know that smell burst-
open bride
CHORUS:
what is it like?
CASSANDRA:
what is what like?
CASSANDRA:
Me a killed slave easy fistful of death
you O humans O human things
a shadow is enough to
a sponge can wipe you off
you I pity
[exit Cassandra]
CHORUS:
as brightness blows the rising
and hang in it, their glory, stare out
death for death for death
(ii)
CASSANDRA:
‘I know that smell’
(Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1333)
Gorges
down black drops white
water after shadows plunge out of
wild all around to deep trees
a white cock crows.
Deer in snow at a deer
angle the
sudden
drenching its
black throat. White what.
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