Improv 1, Week 11

The first Improv for this week riffs Jillian Weise's "The Old Questions"


The Old Questions

When I asked you to turn off the lights,
You said, Will you show me your leg first?

I heard Rachmaninov through the wall,
A couple making love without prerequisites.

Do you sleep with it on? I forgot
There would be this conversation.

Do you bathe with it on?
I need to rehearse answers to these questions.

Will you take it off in front of me?
I once stepped into a peep show in New Orleans.

Over the door, signs read: Hands off our girls.
Is it all right if I touch it?

I am thinking of a hot bath, a book.
The couple on the other side of the wall laughs.

She has found the back of his knees.


With this piece, I changed the direction for my riff in the second stanza by changing "heard" to "smell," then I let my mind flow to think of what kind of smell could lead the way into shocking imagery. Dead rats were the first thing that came to mind. I also played with the idea eating edible thighs, I thought this would be intersting imagery to work with.


Darn, Dirty Rat

When I asked you to turn down the heat,
you said, Will you first show me your thigh?

I smelled rats in the wall,
fornicating with the dead.

Does it taste like chicken? I forgot
how crude you were.

Is that scar from mountain biking?
I should remember you never stop talking.

Do you taste like chocolate?
I once tried Vanilla Ice Cream in the Bronx.

On the window signs read: Scored 97 on Health Inspection.
Are you good at everything you do?

I yearn to bask in the snow, to drown.
I hear one of the rats squeak in excitement.

She has eaten her lover.