...Merely Players

Family, though not blood

In our home, which is not a house

Until it is a house, or a castle, or a ship on faraway seas

Through the magic of sweat and saw, paint and passion

Word and gesture

Light and darkness

Shadows flitting through lands of imagination

Trailing comet tails of fizzing fantasy

All in the hopes of creating one moment

A breath, a pause

Wherein disbelief is suspended

And the quietest of voices can be heard,

The most impossible of wishes can be granted

Pumpkins into carriages, peasants into kings

Applause rocks the rafters until the lights dim and

The vision fades and the crowd departs

Laughing, crying, thoughtful, thunderous

Making their way back to their lives

With fresh eyes

Maybe

And we are left behind

In the hush

In the harsh fluorescent lights of reality

A family

Our blood still singing with the rush, the exhilaration of

Creating worlds of wonder for others to enter

Staking out a space amidst the storm

For laughter and love, kindness and hope

Gentle things, fragile things

Tattered, threadbare, and too easily forgotten

Except here

In this place of wood and metal

Heavy drapes and dusty air

Where shades dance and memory lingers

Belonging to no one yet belonging to everyone

A place of belonging

For us

Outcasts and misfits, ragtag and rowdy

It cradles us and our dreams

Protecting us

Through the nightmares

Accepting every insecurity and fear

Spinning them into golden threads

That connect one to another

To others, this space may seem empty, hollow

Haunted by trite platitudes and gaudy fictions

But for us

It is everything

Truth in fancy dress

And we give it our all

To be what we dream of

And when we dream

We are home