A Million Shakespeares: Collected Plays 1988-1998

by Gregg Brown

Excerpt from a version of

FIRST STATEMENT TO THE AUDIENCE
I stand naked in front of you.
I can't lie to you for one second.
This is my story you will see.
I see it as one of redemption, Justice.
But how you will see it, my thousand eyes transfixing this darkness,
I do not know, and I cannot say. I only know that you
have entered it, my story. You will feel it in my blood
as I feel it. I do not accept that any distance
can exist between us. Not any distance in space.
Not any distance in culture. Not any distance in time.
Not any distance in language. Not in blood. Not in hope.
You are me, in this. Who you will be afterward
even you do not know. I stand naked in front of you.
I can't lie to you for one second.
Oh, my thousand eyes, my thousand eyes
--from ULTRA

738 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2004