In Teratology, the distant arching dome of an old train station looms over four stranded travelers, four strangers trapped together for a long night. Or are there three? Or two? Or...?
Teratology was written and originally performed
by Dave O'Meara, and is one of the plays for one actor included in
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- Teratology Part 1
That night,
In that train station— - Teratology Part 2
Somewhere far above us, way up there
In the dark,
On the other side of a vast... - Teratology Part 3
There on the floor, beneath
That thing,
We did what we could, the four of us, to occupy... - Teratology Part 4
In that huge
Symmetrical place, our movements
Could not help... - Teratology Part 5
But its only now, in memory, that I am able
To enjoy
That music, now that immobility... - Teratology Part 6
There was a moment, not long
Before the moment of which I am thinking—
The moment... - Teratology Part 8
There was One!
In the row behind me, across the aisle
To my right, stretched out ... - Teratology Part 9
But as I looked down bench
After bench, as I stared into the shadows
Of pillar after pillar... - Teratology Part 10
An urge to hurry
Came over me, an urge
To finish.... - Teratology Part 11
It was an odd, toylike
Place, this upper balcony, a curious
And whimsical... - Teratology Part 12
All around me everything was quiet—
Save for the low
Meditative hum of the invisible... - Teratology Part 13
Sometime later, as my thoughts returned,
Spent
If not chastened from their midnight... - Teratology Part 14
But then, just before
The big moment, before the catharsis
Of auto-enumeration... - Teratology Part 15
My own hand—I mean
My hand
When it was still a hand, a simple ordinary... - Teratology Part 16
But I could not get away—there in my private
Darkness, branded
Onto the back of my eyelids, defying... - Teratology Part 17
Wouldn't it be embarrassing
If it turned out all along to have been
Something I should... - Teratology Part 18
Time passed, I'm sure, while I pondered
That image,
There with my eyes shut. Soon it lost... - Teratology Part 19
"Oh yes, you may," I said, "Right here. Please do."
And there beside me on my
Solitary bench... - Teratology Part 20
Right then, all I wanted—
Despite my eager, throbbing hand
Which still... - Teratology Part 21
And so, for some time now,
I've been alone,
Undisturbed...
As I sat there, listening
Silently to the silence, it occurred to me that this moment,
This unanticipated...
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