VOYAGE

Phyllis and Roy are in a doorway.

Neither is coming or going.

They are framed within the frame

and the door is only half open,

so there is no portal or a passageway here.

It's more like a place to get stuck in.

They are yelling at each other

arguing, fiercely

about a suitcase, of all things,

which is odd and slightly ironic

because they have just come from seeing

a play called, Voyage, which in part

is about characters who keep missing

opportunities for love,

and who keep asking each other

the same curious question:

“What’s wrong with this picture?”  

which is a question Phyllis and Roy

ought to be asking themselves right about now

but they’re not, because all their attention

is on the damn suitcase, its

broken handles and zippers, torn outer pockets,

how it has been mishandled by careless attendants,

has seen too much wear and tear

from too many recent trips “Down Under,”

and how, given its current condition,

isn't really up for the next big trip,

which is just around the corner - unless

they can decide

which one of them will take it

in to be repaired.

As the audience to this little drama

we know something that Phyllis and Roy don’t:

the suitcase isn’t the issue, it’s a stand-in

for something else, that they,

like the characters in Voyage,

are ill-equipped to talk about.

It is a symbol for something

that they can’t quite face.

So all they can do is what they are doing.

It’s a failure of the imagination, really.

That’s what it is.

If they only had a different symbol,

a parakeet, a bath mat, a juicer,

Phyllis and Roy might just be able to

free themselves from the prison of the doorway

and their petty insults

and put the deadweight and baggage

of their rudderless conversation down,

and, suddenly feeling lighter, would, on a whim,

head upstairs, hand in hand -

the door closing blithely behind them -

to search the sea of cable channels

for, of all things, an episode

of The Love Boat,

where Merrill Stubing and Julie McCoy

captain and cruise director,

hilariously dressed

in white shorts and a perky bob,

allow Phyllis and Roy the opportunity

to laugh

vicariously

and affectionately

at themselves

out loud.