CHIPS AND LAUGHTER

the knife
is pulled out of
the back

the poison
is spat out and
the dead come back

they stand
before us
joyful

& our joy joins theirs
like waves
that crash

upon the sands
of our senses
& Time turns back

to the ordinary moment
we stand
& clap

these our actors
(which we see before us)
take their bow

soak up
the applause
& dash behind

the safety of the curtain
that has come down
between their world & ours

we enter into
the coldness of the night
our breaths like spirits

speaking for us
the actors' dreams
still clutched like flowers

in our hands
& wander on
drawn now

to the lovely laughter
of our Hamlet
eating chips with Ophelia


and so
our play
ends


*

Found the backstage antics more fascinating than the play itself...all the dramas that the human lives have to contain whilst sustaining being a Hamlet during the two hour traffic of the stage just to maintain the illusion of the story for us. Meanwhile back at the real human being...