7. Of the Film "Dancer in the Dark": On the Relation of Empathy to Beauty

I told them it was powerful, don't go.

I told them it was much more than they imagined.

I told them the protaganist was put to death, step by step.

Told them they didn't want to see it.

Told them the music would never sing again.

Told them the reviews left something out, something awful.

Told them they would never again sanction executions.

Told them hanging was the worst.

Told them the head, hooded, still looks like a head.

Told them the whole body streaks your eyeballs as it falls.

Told them they would have nightmares.

Told them not to go, not to look, not to let it affect them.

What was I thinking when I told them that?

Go tell them, I thought, because they are my friends.

Like a parent, I wanted to save them from pain.

But the root of all evil is the inability to feel another's pain.

What are we to do as parents?

Are my children merely balls in four-colored fragments?

Told them what I thought was everything there was to tell.

Told them it was a beautiful film, but don't go.

Told them not to tell me about it.

Copyright World Poetry, Incorporated Jan/Feb 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved