STRIKING THE SET
Dancing ends
applause dies
audience leaves.
Stage lights, in end-of-show blaze,
begin to dim
house lights turn on.
The curtain descends
On the silent stage,
the hall is hushed.
A one-act drama is about
To begin:
Another dance.
Its plot: choreography developed
And mastered
As apprentices.
Its music: the sound of shifting scenes
klieg lights unbolted
from the rafters
Its steps: hushed shuffling of feet
near-silent folding and storing
of curtain and props.
This performance
as smooth and rhythmic as the first
bonds the dancers,
strengthens their
common memory
of rehearsals
fatigue
and applause and roses.
The drama ends.
the shuffling steps grow faint and die.
Performers – no longer dancers –
leave.
The last few lights grow dim,
go out.
The dance is over.
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