Lance Lee
Plays within Plays
Strange, this sky - a fin of fire cruises westward,
then naphtha beams, flame throwers in an
otherworldly war,
boil the clouds and choke the light:
Vs of geese, and lower, a cloud of crows
fly swiftly through the murk.
Another moment, and the sky transforms
to gold tissues, some lamé,
then darkens by stages to navy, glittering strands
as though a dancer shedding veils.
A last orange flutter of coals,
and night draws a curtain over the field.
Who is watching? I wonder, chilled
suddenly sure all this is a show
for an audience behind the sky
for whom even now I am part of the play,
the hero in the dark.
Who sees me for what I am?
Am I anyone at all?
Or am I married to a role called ‘myself’
that turns out instead to be all mask?
I scurry from the field,
confused by the doubts
the black hawk of anxiety
lives to slide down the wind and strike.
But I hesitate at my door:
love, and light, are there, and those
who will give me a name and place, pleased
I am home,
wondering what kept me -
how can I share my fears
and make their happiness insecure?
So I go in quietly,
answering smile with smile.
Page(s) 14
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The