Recognition Scene

The point in a tragedy at which the characters come to the vague realization that things have become absolutely hopeless; they recognize their situation as, of course, tragic. The point in wondering a neon-lit Japanese street in the rain at which one rea

 

Things aren’t getting any better from here

Instead of wrapping up

the plot unravels in

A thousand thousand

Blocked and desinationless directions

Fathersless and motherless children

Wantonly wither the will

of a new generation

Something for sad playwrights’ pens

The doomed heroes,

The love suicides,

Monzaemon and Goethe

People or puppets,

Most are a little of both

Because people can’t fly on paper wings

Any more than paper dolls can live on paper hearts

Under Osaka’s streets

Subterranean and bloody like a bad dream

Up among the stars

It’s the recognition scene

Where you understand everything

What makes it a tragedy

Is when they don’t stop trying