Clap Your Hands
Victor - corrupt person and entity
Young girl - uncorrupted entity
VICTOR crouches stage center head bowed. Full length of this slave song Early in the Morni’ plays (4.42).
GIRL enters stage left and approaches and touches him on the shoulder
VICTOR begins monologue
My name is Victor the non boy-wonder.
My middle name is pain but it is no wonder.
I was born unblessed battered bereft.
A broken colt from a beautiful mare.
My mother said - Victor - I wish I killed ya.
I was only sixteen - no one would have missed ya.
I saw my Daddy off with a flying dragon kick.
A mystical creature inside me did the trick.
He was asking for it before you ask me!
So don’t give me - my God that’s just ghawstly (English accent).
He smashed through the banisters with a yelp.
He tried to grab the air, which wasn’t much help.
He landed on his neck and bent it madly.
He would need a chiropractor very badly.
Clap your hands - stomp your feet.
That’s the kinda music that has a great beat.
Clap your hands stomp your feet.
Snap crackle Daddy in a great big heap.
My name is Victor the long living corrupter.
When the child is harmed the celestial light fades.
Consummatum est I am at my best.
In all things fundamental I will hurt you.
The angel of Victor is above you.
In the hold of Irish coffin ships from Galway.
Chained together on slave ships from the black Congo.
In the narrow culverts of Crossmaglen.
In the grey gas chambers of Bergen Belsen.
On the highways to Elysium you can’t stop me.
In the sky above Hiroshima you can’t spot me.
With fracking wells I will poison your babies deep.
In the slick highways I will slay you in your family jeep.
In Vietnam I will Agent Orange spray you.
In Guantanamo forever I will hold you.
In solitary confinement - I will shackle you.
Into shallow graves in Cambodia - I will shovel you.
In Spain I will Catholic Inquisition you.
In Mississippi I will high tree lynch you.
In Syria I will saran gas you.
In Fukishima I will radioactive ion bathe you.
In Iraq I will IED blast you.
In Afghanistan I will high sky drone you.
In New York I will suicide plane through you.
Clap you hands stomp your feet
That’s the kinda music that has a great beat
Clap your hands stomp your feet
Victor is the killer that you (to audience – take time to point) made complete.
QUIETLY
Clap you hands stomp your feet
Listen to the blue light that is in you deep. (points at child)
Clap you hands stomp your feet
The cosmic mother in you
Adores the child Victor heart beat.
Clap you hands stomp your feet
You (points at audience) can stop the dervish (points at self) with the killing dance beat.
Clap you hands stamp your feet
That’s the kinda music that has the best beat.
Join Us!
Mercy, ingenuity, nuance, complex truths, guts and honor still matter! Join us in proclaiming so by purchasing, or giving the gift of, The New Engagement in print.
Follow Us
"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive."
~ James Baldwin
Help us spread the ethos of compassion and understanding by joining our social media networks and sharing generously!
Contests & Prizes
Flash Fiction Contest
On May 1st, we announced the winners of our Flash Fiction Contest: Thomas Garcia (1st), Rick Krizman (2nd), and Rios de la Luz (3rd). Read more.
The James Baldwin Literature Prize
It is with great pleasure that we announce the winner of The James Baldwin Literature Prize of $1,000 to Hafsa Musa. Read more.
Recent Literature
"As an Act of Protest" Exposes the Frauds, Hypocrites, and Cowards
Wonderland, A Collection
The Arrested Evolution of William S. Burroughs
Dr. Strangetimes or: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Virus
The Writer
Futures in Gold
The Wanting Was a Wilderness
There’s Something About (Intergenerational) Trauma
La Dona Remedia
Hanging in The Balance
The End of Imagination
Grass Waving Under Wind, A Collection
The New Engagement
The New Engagement endeavors a novel approach to discovering, introducing, and showcasing writers, artists, and filmmakers, by providing them digital and print platforms, while encouraging and supporting their social-consciousness.