Poetry as a gift

THE SMILE OF TRAGEDIES

To Fran, our inspiring Fran

We are actors onstage,
playing characters who play themselves or others.

Each night, as the curtain rises,
there's only one woman who smiles through our tragedies.

As blood is drawn and heroes
fall, repent or die, she looks as if she holds a secret.

One night, at the end of the play,
her secret was finally revealed:

as the curtain was drawn we heard a burst of laughter,
immense as the applause of a full room.

We then smiled and thought no more about our tragedies.