JOHANNES GÖRANSSON
from Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate

NOTE ON THE PRODUCTION

The main scene should be full of ornaments and crime. The words attributed to the characters do not necessarily have to be spoken; they can be acted out, or played on an archaic tape-player.

The second stage is an abandoned factory in downtown South Bend, IN, where during the entire performance my daughter Sinead dances while changing in and out of various costumes: the Hare Mask, the Cartoon Face, the Red Robe of History, the Reversible Body. She is only once actually seen by the audience, on a video screen streaming live from her dance. Mostly she is hidden because she represents that which is hidden.

The third stage is a mall, where the Natives stand still, watching, interviewing and photographing the Customers. Sometimes I feel a certain tenderness towards the Natives. Other times I want to stab them in their plug-ugly faces.
   
   
   
    
    

THE PROM QUEEN
(blood splattered on her white gown)

Look at my doll penis. Look at my cake. I acquired them by trading in a transistor radio. I went analog. Through my smeared red lips and my putrid lips and my eyes like orchids and my hair like snow, I acquired something greater. I became the penis.
   
   
   
    
    

THE DREAM WEAPON

The daughter posses a segmented body supported by the latest and hardest fashion objects. The segments of the body are organized into three distinctive but interconnected units: the foul head, the faintly flowery mouthpart and the abdominal region. The head has a colorful mouthpart decorated with ovule-like organisms. Her abdomen may be capable of feeling pain due the presence of nociceptors. The doll parts are insected with cake. The reproductive structures are fused with ganglia. The lungs are perforated slightly to allow for a gradual reduction of oxygen in the circulatory system. A daughter is an object that represents a baby. It is anatomically correct for nervous disorders. The baby’s wound is covered with flickering bodies of small insects with twitchy wings. In Hollywood we say that she is born again.
   
   
   
    
    

MISS WORLD

In the Welfare State the sun has out-ruined all the nocturnal mouthpieces. The sun-out has obliterated all the rancid petals and turned the protrusion dulled. They will all be exhibited in the Natural Museum together with the rest of my assemblage: the polished abdomen, the gleaming ganglia and the disinfected holes. I have drawn a picture of a horse. The captions says: This way.
   
   
   
    
    

MIMESIS

I kill because I love money. White women are money but it’s so hard to see in here because it’s dark. I’ve become invisible. I’ve become dangerous to my own chest with all these sharp objects. One thing I’m holding on to might be the most dangerous object yet because it might get me killed. It feels hard, as if it were made of ivory. But it’s invisible. And the crowd is getting agitated. This is realism.
   
   
   
    

THE PASSENGER

I’ve made it this far but I still can’t figure out who I’ve been brought to this party to kill. It’s too bright in here. Would somebody turn of the flashlights. Would somebody cover up that girl dressed up like a little girl dressed up like a big girl. She is made of the most blinding materials. It’s even hard to trust the television in here. Every murder plot sounds equally unrealistic. Today I saw a woman in an ambulance. Her mouth open. That was realism. This is terrorism. Desire.

Johannes Göransson's Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate will be published by Tarpaulin Sky Press in Spring 2011. He has published three prior books of his own writings—A New Quarantine Will Take My Place, Dear Ra, Pilot (“Johann the Carousel Horse”)—and several books in translation—including, most recently, With Deer by Aase Berg, Ideals Clearance by Henry Parland and Collobert Orbital by Johan Jönson. He co-edits Action Books with Joyelle McSweeney, and co-edits the online journal Action, Yes with John Dermot Woods. He teaches at the University of Notre Dame and writes regularly on the blog www.montevidayo.com.

More excerpts from Entrance can be found on the book's webpage, as well in the pages of jubilat, New American Writing, Columbia Poetry Review, Tammy, Cleaves Journal, and Parthenon West.