AN ACTOR’S LAMENT                                                                    

Shall I audition for this Shakespeare play?

There is no part in it I really want.

Break wind and blow the lead away –

he was utter rubbish in Charlie’s Aunt!

Though I often think I was born too late –

by,say, half a thousand, six hundred years –

I possess a marked tendency to prate

and my tragic and comic roles are feared.

But the stars have placed me miles from Stratford

and the nearest am-dram, many leagues hence,

the bus fare to get there I can’t afford

a round of drinks after is coin ill spent.

            So long as my talents put men to sleep

            myself to myself I had better keep.

Will S.