The plot’s been overturned,
The hero’s been defeated.
Backstage bloats with silence:
Why did the curtain fall so early?
*
The fire faints, and actors fail
To recognize the fringe
Of the stage, miming in the dark,
Trespassing the circle’s thread
With a tear-eroded make-up:
A pair of blind eyes
And no more hearing ears,
A hacked heart, hardened,
Lamented in famous names.
When lost between the spotlight’s lines
I try to catch your eyes.
But busted in the blinding light,
I balance on a page.
Now in the coughing darkness
I scour the emptiness
Behind the face-spliced mask
And scrape the swarf
From the last premiere.
To step outside the pale ring,
With one hand on a pretty girl
And one hand on the script,
Do you love me?
A question that will take us
Far beyond the last applause
And empty changing rooms.
*
The plot’s been overturned,
The hero’s been defeated.
Backstage bloats with silence:
Why did the guillotine fall so early?