Show of Fools

They silence my world

With blood velvet curtains—

Dim the lights

And exit signs

They take my jacket

Leave my shivers—

Rest it six feet

Under the stage.

The jester contorts

Reaching for the jacket—

Success—he strangles himself

With its arms.

My jacket clings

To every laugh and shout—

I hide in public

Cloaked in shame.

A tree falls in a forest

But they don’t hear.

Under the spotlight,

I stand alone.

They rip from my finger

My wedding ring

Hold it up to the light

to shine and shatter.

They scrape my body

Down the aisle

To collapse in the arms

Of a jester choked.

One man cheers and

The audience erupts—

Powerful, they call it

To see my heart stopped.

When the show is over,

They mop the stage.

The crowd disperses,

but i do not get up.