Farm to Table
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Text of Piece:
A therapist’s office surrounded by exoskeleton gaudy gold & crimson. An empty office chair whispers palindromes. FARMER & PIG sit too close & caked in flour, sieve their own chalk outlines.
PIG sitting upright, her gaze remains on FARMER. FARMER sits, his legs apart, staring at the audience, cradling his comically large rifle.
PIG: I think you’re getting a-head of yourself.
FARMER: I’ve never been anywhere else.
PIG: I don’t understand.
FARMER: You don’t need to for it to be the case.
PIG: I want to understand.
FARMER: It’s not important. Not at all.
PIG: She’s late.
FARMER: We’re early.
PIG: Not early enough.
FARMER: It’s not important.
PIG: I adore the decor, it’s very ornate.
FARMER: I can’t tell.
PIG: We’ve been sitting here long enough.
FARMER: It’s not important.
PIG: Just shoot me now.
FARMER adjusts his rifle, prepares for the shot.
PIG, now dead from the neck down, her black grape in brine.
Blackout.
END
Rachel Stempel is a genderqueer Ukrainian-Jewish poet and PhD candidate in English at Binghamton University. They are the author of the chapbooks Interiors (Foundlings Press, 2021) and BEFORE THE DESIRE TO EAT (Finishing Line Press, 2022), and their work has recently appeared in Hobart, Seasons of des pair, and Hypertext Magazine. They currently live in New York with their rabbit, Diego.
