1929 silent movie, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, and based on Wedekind's play, Lulu, Pandora's Box was the film that brought Louise Brooks to international notice. Yes, Jack the Ripper appears as a character, and Brooks plays a seductress/prostitute who destroys men with her beauty but this a complex, tragic film that never dips into the strange campiness and melodramatic weirdness of other silent films of the era. Brooks' performance is magical.

In Greek Mythology, Pandora and her Box were actually made by Zeus to punish mankind. Prometheus stole the heavenly fire from Zeus, and gave it to man, and this angered the god.

Zeus created Pandora ("all-gifted") with the help of the other gods at Mount Olympus. She was an incredibly attractive creature, endowed with many charms. Zeus offered her as a gift to Prometheus, but he wisely rejected her, expecting a trap from the king of gods. Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, could not believe such a beutiful creature could be evil, so he took her in under his wing.

Pandora is then given a box by Zeus, which she opens in spite of being told not to. In the box, Zeus has placed all diseases, sorrows, crimes and misery that would inflict humanity once the box was opened. The only good thing was Hope lying in the bottom, which even Zeus had not managed to remove.

The story is very much like the Christian creation myth. After man has received the heavenly fire, he lives a wonderful, worryless life (Paradise). He is given a beautiful woman by the god. The woman yields to temptation, doing what she is told not to. This causes all the pain in the world.

Simon said use simple words to summarise the game plan
I said simple, Simon, but suppose that I’m a changed man?
He said, nonsense, besides I don’t believe that phrase and
I’ve told you before that you remind me of a strained dam
Or a stage hand, but please just let me handle the props
As you might know what you’re doing but you panic a lot
And as always we need anything but for the standard to drop
You get nervous then you’ll sweat, then you’ll damage the lock
And damn it I’m not saying that I’m the be all and end all
But I’ve got steady hands that are needed for the send off

Simon said please light the match then run for the hills
Watch as the light gains weight and the summer stays still
But what Simon didn’t say was that this slumber was real
And the only dreams that I’ve had, a hunger would steal

I said to Simon how the air always felt so dead in my flat
Lethargic on the bed in the back, another pedant in black
Singing words to sever the facts, too much pressure to act
With a wry smile stuck to my teeth with a president’s tact
Testing the facts and re-arranging words until the plan fits
Breathing second hand smoke until nobody could stand it
Watching as my hands split the work, Simons gaze stalled
Cut the dead weight in the room, preparing for a great fall
A vision who straight talks, with precision and plate thoughts
Let the whole world see how this pigeon’s a hawk

I said to Simon that I thought that the matches were damp
And that the sulphur kept aggravating a scratch on my hand
This passion was planned, and every night light stalked me
My own work guided me, but another’s hands caught me

Simon said the trick was always to make it seem an accident 
To keep pushing at the ground until you feel your traction slip
To fly your flag without attaching it to any form of significance
To keep your eye on the horizon, for that’s where the mission is
How this prism tips the balance from haunting to a rose garden
How the roads here all seem to want to show a slow pardon
Watch a ghost closing in, suddenly Simon’s words seem shallow
Watch the water wrap your ankles, cast belief in as you paddle
A thief is just a shadow as the light still builds to blinding
Finding spots to hide in trying to live the life assigned him

Simon said to let them know that we were coming to town
Once the locks broken they’ll hear how punishment sounds
Salvation is just one click away with a gun in your mouth
And that the moon won’t rise with the sun on the ground

Myself and Simon walked slowly with the wind at our backs
Carrying the sorts of people that our sins would attract
Still we binged on the fat of the land, watch as the sky falls
Ready to give back all the earth that’s left to the shy sorts
My minds curt and whispers words about opening a box
But once it's opened there is no hoping it’ll stop
So we walked mountain ranges, the world in our scope
Watching hands reach heavenward, absurd in their hope
We were a serpent that showed its hand in the garden before
And man showed once again that he shouldn’t have started a war

So me and Simon walked home across this blitzed ground
Knowing full well that we shouldn’t have let the gift out
But the grits ground down and we can build from the dirt up
And wash our new found sins in the water that it stirs up.

Oh, you'd think
It would be empty by now

But I open the box again
I say what I want

And hear "No."

I sit in want
Old wants
Buried wants
Pressure rising

I know by now
What is happening
I let it rise in me
I do not fight it
I clean the bathroom
Scrub tile and grout
Wants claw inside me
Burst like striking oil
A geyser from within
Black sticky want
Screaming up through the air
Falling everywhere
Filthy, flooding

It will take a while to clean up
this dark matter,
pollutant to poison
or fuel to sustain?

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