Curtain Call

you hide behind the curtain
waiting to come out, out
of the darkness and into
the spotlight because

who longs for the shade,
the dull, lifeless reckoning
with one's self, yourself
beckons, calls but

who are you, I wonder
behind the black veil
behind the red velvet curtain
you step into the spotlight and

I'm already gone, it's just too late
too late to figure out which
stage direction you need to take
stage left, I call out, stage left

but of course you don't hear me
you don't see me
I am not the director, I'm
just a person who points the spotlight

and tells you to go.