Box, Stage Left: A Monologue in Three Acts of Deception

Author's Notes Preamble: I wanted to put this right before the action takes place. I am finally published outside of Vocal and by anyone other than myself! This poem is one of two submitted to Vocal legends' Celia and River In Underland's awesome new publication, The Underland Review. This poem and one called "In Situ After “I Need My Girl” by The National (which I will publish on Vocal at another time) are featured in the August 2025 edition, among other names many people will be familiar with.

The theme and title of that edition was "The Zine is a Lie". You can find out more by clicking on the links below the poem.

Give them support, though, as they are making strides to help people have their voices heard.

And yes, I do know getting published in your friend's publication is a lot easier than getting published outside in the big bad world, but I'm taking this as a win. I need it!

~

Act One

~

Sitting in the theatre,

settled in one of the boxes

to upper stage left,

The curtains come up,

the lights go down,

the hum of the oboe

introduces our fair maiden

Odette Odile the swan queen

what a stunning display—fortified beauty and grace

of trickery masked with the dainty movements of a prima ballerina

her eccentricity overshadows her inanity and vapid nature

the woman, the liar, who draws you into her lair.

steady your mind, to fight the honeyed words that flow from her mouth like the life-giving

waters from a natural spring or waterfall.

~

Act Two

~

Given the nature of the above, you'd think it was a woman that was inferred

but what of poetic license?

Could poetic justice reveal that the woman was in fact a man, and was in fact me?

The honeyed words I used so often, so deftly,

used to distract, dislodge any distrust toward what I said and did.

~

Act Three

~

My actions were like icebergs, the greater mass of trust/lie beneath the surface exceeded the

gentle whimsical and thoughtfully right-on truths above the surface.

A lie is never not a glitch in the system.

The truth is the end goal, but the lies give power to the darkness

Even the darkest of truths bring with them

the light that brightens the blackened skies

I've come to call

my north star.

*

Thanks for reading!

Here are the links: