Doing Lines (poem for an actor)

It starts with an audition
Gone backwards
Start as a demon and up you go
As an angel

The angel is portrayed by a human

a mechanism
runs on money
to make the lines possible

But that’s not the important part
And we all know it

The story would want to be told, and will be told
Again and again
About family, love and forgiveness
Sacrifice
About where you keep your treasure
How your treasure is never made of gold

It stays within these lines
Within the limits of this culture

Had the story been born too early
these lines would be incomprehensible
Too late and nobody would care
All of its novelties spilled and broken
Into other forms

It stays within these lines
Within the magic you make with your yoke-mates

Within the lines of this frame
This armature of grace
There is a blurring
The angel and the human get to toy with the story
Crosshatch and infill to make this playful form

Speak the lines
They spill into the love the fans pour into drawings
Speak the lines
They break into infinite regresses of fractal meaning
Speak the lines
And we thank the director for lighting you properly
Speak the lines
And we imagine a love that can’t die
Speak the lines
And we want to hear your own voice in your true life
Speak the lines
And we rise up like eager fools and fight one more day