STAGE DIRECTIONS

The actor rose,
the moon on his face.
Say it was the third take.

As if they had never met
the electricity tightened
in her eyes and in his.

I saw everything in a flickering silver light.
They did not know me. It was perfect.
She shot him once in the chest and he died,
and he let one hand fall across his face,
and the grey trees quietly shook in the wind.

Still the moon shone on his face
and was the same as ever
and lit the grass as usual.

[Exeunt]

I was so finely poised between things
it seemed as though the sun would never rise:
never past the guillotine horizon. A clean cut.

[Enter]

Now the sky slips between my fingers.
I tense at the edge of the street.
Across the street, two white faces. Why
are there gaps? I should like to see
two things meet.

The tremulous light solders
and goldens and slowly
in the turning light the world
explains itself. I cannot see