Piece together the pieces of a scattered mind
Make a scented paste of the bump and grind
A play, a performance, a story played out
An emotion whispered with a gentle pout.
The sweat must not smell and the hurt must not show
But Feelings must reach all the way back to the last row
The arms reach out to metaphorically embrace
The heart swells and presses against each face
The audience looks up with spell-bound eyes
At this live marionette – a truth spinning lies!
Making them aware of things within that said
“We live in you, in your heart and your head”.
The Actor, a rebel, a dangerous propagator
Story-teller, ideate-or, other people’s narrator
A bleeder, a weeper, manic laugh generator
A reader, emote-r, Life’s Dramatic Curator
A long pointed realization reaching out from the stage
Ensconced in words that challenge the day and the age
With unfolding events, unraveling text off the page
Shattered, intact, peeling, perfect – out of the emotional cage
Points of light grow into shafts and beams
As the darkness flows and ebbs in streams
Colours highlight spaces, evoke longings and anger
Push through Love redolent with passionate languor
Inhabiting that light, filling that stage, the Actor is keen
To live through people and times that may never have been
But which echo inside and fill each cavernous soul
With images and dreams and yearnings et al
Spinning with rage, broken hearts shatter on the floor
As young couples with rosy lips float in through the door
The spotless maiden is turned into a witch by conspiracy
And great masses fight for freedom and democracy…
Where have these people gone, they filled the hall a moment ago
Who is that person, solitary clown, his paint leaking over his ego?
Is he responsible for all that I am feeling, making me think
There was a war on in here and I too was on the brink
Those lovers who met me here, their story both happy and tragic
Could this Actor have created them and this illusion, this magic?
No! Foul creature! To enter my heart and mind, you dare?
When I seldom even allow myself in there…
When the curtain came down the stands were silent with thunder
The crowd that roared with applause and cheers was torn asunder
With sudden uncertainty now that the feeling had gone
Of walking through lightly after having stumbled upon
Backstage they are packing up the night’s dreams
And opening up bottles of cleansing creams
And swigging at brewed nectar they call spirits
Joshing each other about curtain calls and credits
Another show done, another pay-packet in the bank
Keep the children in school and family out of the dank
There will be food on the table and fire in the hearth
Then new places, rehearsals and shows to stave off dearth
How vivid, the imagery, as the scenes unfold line after line! A real take on reel life. Lovely!