Some of us never get past our stage fright.
I forget my lines, stand stiff and dumb,
Unable even to exit, stage right.
My ears roar with white noise, my tongue goes numb.
The sight of clustered eyes — the audience
With its expectations, its curt demands,
Its taut, arms-crossed, unforgiving silence —
Fills my head with endless ampersands.
Each remembered line is followed by “&.”
& then? & then? & like an hourglass,
I become empty of yet-to-fall sand —
& then come the billows of laughing gas,
Off stage, the director’s disgusted look,
A finger across his throat, then the hook.
