THE VENUE WITHIN

I believe

there is 

a venue 

within you

and a venue 

within me

that is waiting 

for the chance 

to be the center 

of attention, the chance 

to step into 

the limelight,

where stage fright isn’t

keeping it from being

the presence and the performance 

space it can be,

that lives inside us

after all of life’s rehearsals

as “such stuff that dreams

are made on,”

where the lines come

without any prompting.

It’s all a matter of suspending

disbelief, isn’t it?—by simply 

believing in belief, 

by being Brechtian 

and breaking through 

the fourth wall, 

and in the breaking 

of that wall

are broken 

open, and when we are 

we become the venue 

we were always meant to be,

the space where acceptance,

love and forgiveness 

arrive on the scene,

with little drama, 

and are finally ready

to have their say, their soliloquy.