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#01 - Air
"A breath of fresh air, is what you need," Rosencrantz says and drags him by the hand out on deck, where it's too dark for day and the sea-breeze stifles.
#02 - Apples
"I prefer oranges," Guildenstern confessed; he takes one, anyway, to stop Rosencrantz from frowning (but oranges are orderly, segmented little things, neatly peeled away under rough outsides, and apples have a sweet-stinging crispness like summer, and blue eyes that catch you as soon as they smile).
#03 - Beginning
But there must have been a moment, before the beginning --
#04 - Bugs
The bugs can't bother one too much, can they? (Rosencrantz asked him, seriously asked him --) Dead people never look very bothered by anything -- but then, even being alive in a box and covered by bugs isn't a pleasant thought --
#05 - Coffee
Something like coffee, bitter and dry, that's the way Guildenstern sounded sometimes -- but think of Rosencrantz like one, two spoons of sugar, and perhaps a bit of cream --
#06 - Dark
"Don't leave me here," he whimpers once the stage goes away in a black-out, his hand reaching, grasping, for Guildenstern's sleeve -- "I think I'm afraid of the dark --"
#07 - Despair
"To not know who you are is a state of despair, existentially speaking." -- but Rosencrantz disagrees -- it's not having anyone to tell you.
#08 - Doors
There are too many doors that never lead anywhere in Elsinore, and Guildenstern gets tired of opening them (but Rosencrantz, Rosencrantz peeks).
#09 - Drink
Dane though he was, Guildenstern didn't like to drink, didn't like anything that might crack his sense of self-control -- but sometimes one conversation with Rosencrantz was (almost) enough to drive him to it.
#10 - Duty
They had a duty to the king and to the queen and to the general order of courtly life, but then they would go home -- together -- and Guildenstern promised it even as he didn't believe it.
#11 - Earth
It wasn't that Rosencrantz was unimaginative, but he preferred things his imagination could touch, could feel like sunlight and warmth earth, and sand to make strong castles out of; Guildenstern's words and theories were things of thin air.
#12 - End
Everything comes to an end -- "Well, what about love?"
#13 - Fall
"I know the voices dying with a dying fall," Guildenstern whispered-quoted, without knowing who he was quoting -- he turned to Rosencrantz with almost-a-smile -- "So, how shall we presume?"
#14 - Fire
Underneath the surface, Guildenstern was all fire, all fury fueled on the coal of his own convictions, all passion painted over with faint, philosophical notions; at the surface, he was ice, but around Rosencrantz, ice can crack.
#15 - Flexible
"I may not remember, I mean, but I still think we'd be a whole lot happier if we'd just settled down, gotten married, raised a family someplace." ; "Different families, of course." ; "Oh -- well -- I'm flexible."
#16 - Flying
Rosencrantz is working with the mess of string and paper that he calls a 'kite,' but Guildenstern will probably never see it flying.
#17 - Food
"What did I tell you about playing with your food?" -- but look -- it was only a bit of barley cake, and Rosencrantz had decorated with colouring and cream and the shape of a heart -- !
#18 - Foot
This time they leave their horses behind and walk the rest of the way, on foot, talking about nothing and everything and laughing until they forget where they're going and their heads almost touch (like a romance instead of a tragedy).
#19 - Grave
"Continuity is all I crave --" ("Dig us this day our daily --")
#20 - Green
Rosencrantz tried to think of something suitably charming to say -- "But I like your eyes, they're very -- green? -- brown? -- one of those, at any rate, and they're very handsome --"
#21 - Head
Guildenstern could have lived alone in his own head, but somehow Rosencrantz still imposed upon his thoughts, took up an anteroom or two or three, and soon enough he had his own set of keys and Guildenstern could either come out or let his friend move in.
#22 - Hollow
They had to be more than hollow men, quiet and meaningless, leaning-whispering together -- there had to be a reason for it to end like this -- (not with a bang, but a --)
#23 - Honour
Kings and queens and princes aside, the only thing Rosencrantz can understand of honour is how quiet and careful Guildenstern is, cradling their hands together, bowing his head with a carefulquiet(tender) kiss.
#24 - Hope
"Hope we're still all right, then?" Rosencrantz asked (but never had to).
#25 - Light
A little bit of light cracks through in Rosencrantz's smile, even when it's dark enough to disappear.
#26 - Lost
It was all lost on Rosencrantz, of course, but for once Guildenstern wasn't about to make himself any clearer.
#27 - Metal
For some reason Rosencrantz had always had an attraction to shiny, metal things, and Guildenstern tensed against a shudder as he felt a finger trace over his earring.
#28 - New
Everything comes brand-new to Rosencrantz, and every kiss is the first kiss.
#29 - Old
Guildenstern did his best to sound ironic: "I don't think we're meant to grow old together, sorry."
#30 - Peace
They meet up for the moment, with a peculiar, conserved momentum, with understanding instead of confusion -- peace, but not yet rest.
#31 - Poison
The colours red-blue-green are real, but love, true love, is colourless (and tasteless, like any good poison).
#32 - Pretty
Fussily defensive, Guildenstern argues that gentlemen simply do not qualify as 'pretty' -- but Rosencrantz didn't say that, did he? -- he said Guildenstern's hair was.
#33 - Rain
They discuss the weather, awkwardly -- "quite lovely" -- "it's raining" -- "I like rain."
#34 - Regret
There are things you regret, at a time like this -- that's what Guildenstern said, or tried to say, up until Rosencrantz turned and cut him off at a kiss (and not anymore).
#35 - Roses
"Roses -- Rosencrantz -- suits you, doesn't it?" and he beamed so ridiculously, with his hands full of flowers, Guildenstern didn't have the heart to tell him he'd gotten it wrong again.
#36 - Secret
Rosencrantz only liked secrets so far as he could share them, so he said it as soon as it occured to him: "I think I love you."
#37 - Snakes
"It's not that I'm afraid," Guildenstern insists, "and even if it were, even if I was, fear is only an instinct, a method to survival -- we fear the things that we know could hurt us, like snakes or earthquakes or falling in love -- and what, may I ask, is the matter with that? -- people fear because people want to stay in control, to stay alive."
#38 - Snow
A student in Wittenberg, slicing away little white parchment-pieces with an idle letter opener, he stopped to unfold Guildenstern's homework, and smiled -- a snowflake -- look -- !
#39 - Solid
"Everything falls apart here, or it dissolves -- disentegrates," Guildenstern explained and he knew the explanation sounded desperate; "I need something to stay solid -- I need you --"
#40 - Spring
Spring isn't so much a season as a phenomenom, resurrection posed between winter and summer, and Guildenstern muses on it with arms crossed, while Rosencrantz sits in the shade of an apple tree and stares into the sky.
#41 - Stable
Rosencrantz gives bits of sugar to the horses in the stable, smiling as though they share a particular secret; Guildenstern finds himself staring and thinking how utterly ridiculous (utterly something) this all is.
#42 - Strange
Because Guildenstern had to be the sober rationalist, above earthly, petty things like sex or love (but these are stranger things -- aren't they? -- than can be fended off with philosophy).
#43 - Summer
Before autumn, even, wasn't there a summer -- couldn't they lie in the long grass, bicker about what the clouds were, and every once in a while agree that Danish summers were too short?
#44 - Taboo
Try to explain a thing like a 'taboo' to Rosencrantz; he had an idea, he supposed, of what good men ought and oughtn't do, but why was it he oughtn't put his head on Guildenstern's shoulder, if he liked, and why couldn't he touch Guildenstern's waist as he nestled into his neck?
#45 - Ugly
Was it wrong to think they still fit eachother somehow, incongruous without being ugly (dysfunctional and beautiful)?
#46 - War
There was something nearly military about the way he walked, arms folded-stiff behind his back -- but war didn't suit him, it wasn't his context (and with Rosencrantz at his side he wouldn't last long).
#47 - Water
To say they mixed like water and oil would still account for the thin-film rainbows that flickered through the surface and sometimes made it worth it.
#48 - Welcome
All Rosencrantz needed was someone saying, 'Welcome home' -- but after a while, Guildenstern was home (and after a while, Rosencrantz was even welcome).
#49 - Winter
When autumn is over there's only whiteness and winter and two men likes ghosts before a scaffold, huddled close for warmth.
#50 - Wood
R + G, G + R, it didn't matter what Rosencrantz carved into the wood -- it only passed the time, and he was sure enough he wouldn't remember.