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How can I tell you
Just what you mean?
How can I say the things
I can't even say to me?

It will all be over
We will be left to want
What neither can have
An eternal taunt

But we will remember
The words we have written
They are etched into hearts
Left bereft yet smitten

Some things are easier
Said than undone
We try to fight it
But it cannot be won
The curtain now has fully closed-
So why am I still on this stage
Declaiming words I never wrote.

Why am I in fancy costume, with
Heavy makeup on my face
To hide the wrinkles of my failings
And paint me as a thespian.

Cast in a play they say I’ve written
With a pen that's never touched my hand
And a last act that I’ve never seen.

I haven’t learned the blocking yet,
So I don’t know which way to move
Or which door I should exit through
And what will be my final lines.

As lights go down from the Interval
The audience regains their seats
To watch me in the final scene.
  ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^
It’s over so I bow to scant applause
And no one comes to hand me flowers.
I stumble as the lights go slowly out,
And make my way from memory
To my dressing room down a dusty hall
Where I will take this garish makeup off
And walk home as the girl I really am.
                        ljm
Can't seem to lose this theme.; My whole world's a stage.
“No Man Is An Island”
but that was before smart phones
To text and to tweet
technology’s drones

With ear buds in place
these Stepford’s march on
Virtually connecting
— to what’s already gone

(University of Pennsylvania: June, 2025)
a need to wipe it away.



a tear, a memory pinned,



until we repeat the instruction

to erase, replace, white wash.





the window smeared, is clean

again. with soap and sanctity



washed, aired, ready



for another day.
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