10. The Apple
The camera follows an APPLE as it rolls along the floor of a room, falls down a grating, and ends up rolling along in the snow outside. A SONG accompanies the action enthusiastically. This song, for example:
Here’s the apple as it rolls along
The floor—it seems to sing a song,
What’s more
It’s in danger, the apple is in trouble,
Just a bubble
Of doubt must cross its mind—
Are apples blind?
In any case
As it proceeds to roll along
Over the floor,
Look—it may hit the chair legs, but no more,
We need not fear that, it evades them and goes on—
To hit the table? No!—goes on
Across the slightly not level floor,
But here, alas!
Apple green and white and red
Your head
You may injure—
Oh beware, watch out—
Yes—no—oh, yes—
The apple has fallen in the grate—
Good-bye! But no, it continues to go along,
And now we see it’s fallen outside—
Aren’t you cold, apple?
In the snow,
And it continues,
Our green and red and white, to go
ROLLING ALONG!
(End.)
—Kenneth Koch, from “10 Films”
Art Credit PUTPUT
