Who Can Say?
Who Could Know?
(Enter, center stage, main character, spotlit in limelight)
***
I can't say I wasn't warned
That I wouldn't escape unscathed
Or exit the stage safe and unharmed
Or uncovered of fallout, filthy, unbathed
***
I can't say I wasn't told
That my word choice would set in motion
A cadence dangerous, resented, and tolled
With the bile of a bitter ruminate potion
***
I can't say that it was wise
Scripting her redemption in my bespoke words
To invite her to know what they comprise
And what they said of whom I preferred
***
I wanted to say the woman she was
Had her faults and foibles and missteps untrue
But the verbiage I used gave her pause
Condemning her cruelly as people "like you"
***
Someone "like you" could do no better
Than to sidestep herself to step in my shoes
And dismantle self-worth—make her a debtor
And escape from the role in my play—who knew?
***
My stage is set, simple and bare
For a story that was written as a one-act play
No tension, no conflict, no dialogues: no pair
Only a monologue that reads best in cliché
***
(Exit, the fool)
About the Creator
Gerard DiLeo
Retired, not tired. Hippocampus, behave!
Make me rich! https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/
My substrack at https://substack.com/@drdileo
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Comments (3)
Well-wrought, Gerard. I agree with Rachel, that this one has an air of deep sadness to it. I often find that those who judge others fail to understand the full depth of the issues with which they grapple, even where insight is keen, perhaps almost to the point of being unnecessarily intrusive? Yet some actions remain necessary even where we wish they could have been avoided, and sometimes, we place the blame for an inevitability where it doesn't belong, failing to understand the precognizance of the seeming fool in a matter which he or she was destined to endure. I often think of Prometheus on the Rock; though, of course, like your idiot's monologue here, it's only a fable.
I found this really sad. I don't sense humour in it at all, just loss after a battle from words that should probably have been left unsaid. It's the monologue, the clown picture, the fool exiting after saying it. Yep, sad's what I feel amd sympathy.
This is great, Gerard. Wonderfully written with your classic humor <3