If you stay long enough in the theater alone
you will meet the ghost who lives there
The question of whether time travels differently
as age arrives unbidden A commodity
neither purchased nor requested
as in a catalogue that arrives on the steps
and you leaf through for nothing better
and find yourself ordering the first thing you see
Is not really a question because it is experienced
and no one has ever experienced a question
There is no mystery in the presence of a flower
only in a flower that has not arrived yet
because nothing ever arrives it only persists
straining to meet the light thru the window
as all things are drawn together
by the fact that they exist together
and you cannot think of anything separately
as one moment proceeds from preceding the next
for lack of proceeds the fund drive continues
and you watch the stale concert for lack
of anything better on at that hour
and you wake up at three am in the morning
wondering where the time went and where it goes
nobody knows but at least it cannot be counted
says the flickering specter across the table from you
as the ghost disappears into the refrain of rehearsal
for lines never to be delivered only revised
and revised perpetually until the final draft
And you close the window to keep the air out
Joshua Keiter 