Makes One Wonder

[SARAH, spoken]

There must be some reason you can't say my lines

[MYRTLE, spoken]

Listen, Sarah

Every playwright writes a play about herself

This play is about aging, and I'm not your age

[SARAH, spoken]

I'm sorry, what age are you?

If you can't say your age, then you can't accept my play

[MYRTLE, spoken]

I accept my age

I know I'm not a teenager, I know that

But in the play, Virginia has hot flushes

I don't have hot flushes

I'm not going through menopause

Oh, you know, you're very clever

If I'm good at this part, my career is changed forever

When you're convincing in a part, the audience accepts you as that

I'm looking for a way to play this where age doesn't matter

Age is depressing

Age is hopeless

[MYRTLE]

Not everyone is clocking the hours

[SARAH]

How old are you?

We are not flowers

[MYRTLE]

Not everyone's obsessed with time passing

[SARAH]

How old are you?

Why aren't you answering me?

[MYRTLE]

Okay, I'll admit

I'm no longer quite so fit

Ya get a little lost when you're young

[SARAH]

Forget to look at your wristwatch

I too will admit

Of age I do go on a bit

Ya get a little tripped up when you're young

[MYRTLE]

And then make a career of it

[SARAH & MYRTLE]

Fun!

Makes one wonder

Really makes one wonder

How different

How different are we?

[SARAH]

Okay, let's say theoretically

Both of us are clocking the hours

But in different ways

With different powers

[MYRTLE]

Sure!

Both of us can watch the time passing

Counting the days for what we really want

God!

[SARAH]

So will you admit

The heart of it you're yet to hit

Ya get a little tripped up when you're older

It's okay, it's a part of it, darling

[MYRTLE]

But this I will admit

If this is it, I'll lose my shit

Enough of all this crap about getting older

And later wondering, "What the hell, man

Was that fucking it?"

[SARAH, spoken]

Fucking show business

[MYRTLE]

It makes you want to scream

In the middle of your dream

You worked so hard to build

[MYRTLE & SARAH]

While everybody laughed

[MYRTLE]

That nasty neighborhood

With all the crooked faces

[MYRTLE & SARAH]

They told you you're no good

[MYRTLE]

You thought you had escaped it

[MYRTLE & SARAH]

You sillily thought you had erased it

Makes one wonder

Really makes one wonder

How different

[MYRTLE]

How different are we?

[SARAH]

So you try to write it right

And please them every night

And then a turn of phrase

[MYRTLE & SARAH]

It suddenly won't take

[SARAH]

And you never hear the end

[MYRTLE & SARAH]

Of the criticizing

But it's coming from your own voice

Makes one wonder

Really makes one wonder

Why we're up here

Why we're even up here

And why the hell are we even doing this to ourselves

Day in, day out

Without a break

I guess that

Both of us are in the same basket!

From the cradle to the casket

Trying to figure out this here faucet

They call art

And how to turn it on!

And when they announce

[SARAH]

That the lights will all be dimmed

[MYRTLE & SARAH]

You and I will just have to go and die

And buy a round for all of them

All of them

We have lost

Through the years

Makes one wonder!