The Time and the Place

A poem about the people who are oh-so-great at acting.

I need to re-read the book of manners

Sitting at the table

Every movement judged by the planners

So nervous I don’t feel stable

Every word a faux-pas

And then an awful feeling of loss

They are so rehearsed 

She stretches her face into a giant smile

And cries as loudly as she can in her idea of joy

As the fruits of her children’s efforts are revealed

Their answer to the never-ending question:

What do you buy the woman who has everything?

We are all so uncomfortable

Watching you contort yourself so

Just to display the right emotions

How you admire someone who can cry 

At precisely the perfect time and place

I’ve never come close to mastering that skill you admire

I hold it in when it is required

So that it will come out at the wrong time

A perfect opportunity for vultures, enemies

The few times when one can blame someone for crying

You will always be the saint

And me the sinner