“Without discernible misery / The masked player strides in / Confidence exuding in wavering streams / The curtain lifts to uncover / So many gleaming faces / Apprehensive”
Without discernible misery
The masked player strides in
Confidence exuding in wavering streams
The curtain lifts to uncover
So many gleaming faces
Apprehensive
Staring, focused, and joyful
The masked player does not move
Bewilderment tightens the air
The excitement bottled and compressed
The masked player waits
Knows the power he holds
Over the still crowd
The grand flourish!
And the excitement frees!
Laughing, they are relieved, the mirth is released
To the masked player’s silent satisfaction
The hot lights shine with an intangible force
Following and revealing
The masked player subtly flees their gaze
And the play begins
The crowd marvels and coos
Then gasps and sighs
They are pushed and pulled
The audience draws in a ragged breath
Gasps once more and falls to tears
A tale of heartbreak unrivaled
The masked player grins
The audience weeps — such sorrow and pain!
What a godforsaken man!
The masked player basks in the emotion
Then the curtain falls
The tears are dried and left in the theater
The play is now a play
And nothing more
A point for a study
And nothing more
An abstract fabrication
And nothing more
And nothing more
The masked player bows his head
The spell has been broken on the crowd
As they now critique the fiction
The masked player pushes away backstage
Relieved of the visceral sadness
Gone from the immediate pain
The crowd’s melancholy is allayed
A smile turns the corners of their mouths
And they wish not the play’s tragedy
Upon their worst enemy
Glad the clever actor had simply worn a mask
The masked player leaves the theater
He does not remove his mask
In the darkened night
He does not remove his mask
Arriving at his dismal house
He does not remove his mask
Shuffling up the crumbling stairs
He does not remove his mask
Passing pictures of dead friends
He does not remove his mask
Staring disgustedly in the grimy mirror
He does not remove his mask
For there is no mask to remove
Without any discernible misery
The masked player shuffles off
