Born For The Spotlight

Born For The Spotlight
© Surazeus
2024 12 10

She keeps abandoning herself to sorrow 
to dance with joyful passion in the rain 
as she sings, "I was born for the spotlight," 
then curls into soft terror of tomorrow, 
swallows random pills to mitigate pain, 
and floats alone in namelessness of night. 

She applies pink lipstick to hide her misery, 
then bursts into the room with skillful rage 
of confidence in gray suit and red scarf 
to berate the harried staff for mistakes 
that could cost the company monthly profits, 
then struts off when the director shouts, "Cut!" 

She hides her star-bright eyes behind sunglasses 
while lurking in the crowded shopping mall, 
but someone recognizes her star aura, 
and soon excited fans corner the actress 
like pack of wild dogs the elegant vixen, 
so she panics and flees in thin high heels. 

She peers squinting in glare of the spotlight 
that shields her fragile soul from adoration, 
then steps forward with invisible crown 
and asseverates, "Yet do I fear your nature, 
much too full of the milk of human kindness," 
then steps back and tries to make herself air. 

She glares at his back when he turns away, 
and gasps with despair, "So you run again, 
escaping, as you sneer, the harridan, 
for I always seem to change with each day, 
another stranger wearing my old face," 
then turns, knowing he will not come embrace her. 

She cradles the little girl in her arms, 
staring shocked at her sweet innocent face 
smudged with ash and gashed by bomb-blasted brick, 
then sobs with despair as light of her soul 
dissipates into haze of helpless love, 
and keeps weeping after the scene is done. 

She reads lines of poetry from the book 
"Deathless Mother" that swirl in harmony 
with ocean waves curling around her feet, 
then grins wryly, "It appears I will never 
find the real me behind the masks I wear, 
for I have become every role I played." 

She keeps finding herself in dreams of horror, 
running through the maze of theater halls, 
as she sings, "I was born for the spotlight," 
then stares at her real unself in the mirror, 
framed posters of her movies on stained walls, 
and floats with us in namelessness of light.