Play of the Past
Madeline almost didn’t
see the yellow, tattered
poster through the rain,
asking everyone who passed
Which is the natural man,
which the spirit?
Who deciphers them?
The dates had passed
for the show, one they had
seen on their first date,
The Comedy of Errors.
Later it became a source
of laughs, his being half
an hour late, her
spilling a drink after dinner,
their mutual ease
at imperfections later less
easily forgiven.
But when they saw the play
a second time
they found themselves
misremembering plot points.
The setting seemed off, too,
a modern Ephesus this time.
It could have been better,
she thought, yet she stayed
through every act.
She found new meaning
in the old comedy
the second time around:
It would go on,
bad or good, then play again after
the curtain dropped.