butitsonsale:

This seems very Holden Caulfield. Just my thoughts since we’re reading Catcher.

(via breathingaether)

The scene is a mostly empty stage, lit from the back with the dull orange light of a streetlamp and city skyline shapes silhouetted. Here and there, little piles of ashes and newspaper scraps are scattered. Small fragments of charred, vaguely surreal objects are visible- an oversized ticket, a nun’s habit, a mannequin arm sticking out of the ashes. Enter The Sweeper, an older man wearing a top hat and a grey suit that appears to be singed at the edges. He carries a simple broom, and there is a ridiculous-looking feather duster tucked into one pants pocket. He takes to sweeping while humming in a low voice—a single repeating theme. The Sweeper glances around furtively to ensure he is alone and then begins to sing.

SWEEPER

Alone

Always on my own

In these wrecks of minds

In these dark forgotten streets

Here I wander

Here I walk

And I sweep

Alone

Always on my own.

He returns to sweeping, silently. Enter The Dreamer, a young girl clad in pajamas. She appears to be lost and a little frightened, but feigning courage, if only for her own benefit. She notices The Sweeper and runs to him, but trips on an object in a nearby ash heap and collapses on the ground behind him.

DREAMER

Oh, excuse me, sir

But where is this?

Where am I?

You see, I’m looking for my way

Back home

But I’m not really sure

Where my home is anymore

And I’m not really sure

What is real anymore

Who are you?

Who… are… you?

SWEEPER:

I am the sweeper,

The hidden gatekeeper

To the darkest recesses of the mind

When Hypnos descends

And you turn from day

Never to look behind.

For the things that you sowed

In the blackness of night

The worlds that you built

All shall fall

I will sweep

I will burn

Until naught but the ashes remain

So the good earth below

Shall return to its state

As a tabula rasa

A freshly cleaned slate

For the manic, the strange

The misformed, the deranged,

For the magic, the madness

That only the dreamer can know.

DREAMER:

Have you visited me?

SWEEPER:

A thousand times,

A thousand times,

Though you’d never

Have recalled I was there.

DREAMER:

Why not show your face?

SWEEPER:

When I must erase

All that ever went before

How then can you implore

That I show my visage

Though I seem a mirage

As I fade with the remnants

Of your dreams?

DREAMER:

I didn’t know-

I didn’t think-

And so I fear to even blink

That this may all

In a flash

Disappear from sight

That this world too

Shall vanish into blackest night

SWEEPER: 

This is true.

DREAMER:

Tell me this

The abyss

With the break of day

Swiftly fades away

But you remain?

How can you remain?

I must know before I go,

How can you re-

SWEEPER:

Enough.

I return with the fall of night’s curtain

Over day’s fragile rays

For at least this much is certain

But I tell you this

That mystery remains,

That questions without answers

Are all about

Your head in the dead of night

But now is my farewell

To your shadow-tinged eyes

So awake then now to brightening skies.

There is much to be done

Ere the day has awoke

Till the stage is reset

Till the props are un-broke

Till the old dreams are burned

In the wake of the dawn

So farewell

Return home

With the toll of the bell

And begone.

He casts his hand upwards in a forceful gesture. With this, the scene swiftly changes. The outlines of buildings fold away in the background, while the ash piles are blown away by gusts of wind. The color of the lighting shifts rapidly, settling on a dark blue which grows lighter as the sequence progresses. Amidst the chaos, The Dreamer finds her way back to her bed, and by the time the light has settled she is curled up beneath the sheets. She wakes slowly to a rhythmically ringing alarm clock, and finds herself humming the last few notes of The Sweeper’s song to its beat, though she is helpless to explain why. Noticing the time, she hits the snooze button and pulls the sheets back over her head as the stage fades to black.

(Source: quantummindclassicalheart)