The Actor

The actor knows he has failed
when he leaves the theater and
doesn’t know whether to be
the bumbling sidekick with a goose grin,
the shadowy figure lingering by
the alleyways, the jolly gentleman
with a cowlick, impeccable
in every inflection, the boy-convict
hungry and motherless,
the hero who is strong, who
makes mistakes but never the same
mistake, the disguised king leaving
violets at his lover’s door,
the fortune teller haunted to insanity
by those he swindled, or—
the most harrowing option of all—
to not decide altogether and live as
his own ghost.