Ephemera (by Pamela Sidney)

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Gone, the mouldering ambience
of backstage privilege
intimacy with theatre ghost
spellbound audience
the spine-tingling recognition
of ancient archetype
the religiousness of an empty theatre

Left, with a bulging basket of paper memories
train tickets to long forgotten destinations
photos in scrap books of another me
opening night telegrams, theatre programmes
evidence of treading the boards
on a thousand raked, wooden stages

And the lingering smells
ephemeral, abstract
of make-shift dressing-rooms
stale, second-hand costumes
false eye-lash glue, panstick base
the garish white greasepaint
of decadent, hellish plays
the reflections, the silhouettes
in backstage mirrors
of hungry, posturing actors
comely, naked bodies
parted, seductive, scarlet lips
narcissistic femme fatale's
and the cynical, knowing 'old hands'
with theatre in their veins

ephemeral experiences
the burning recognition
of heroines, long lost legends
to be able to see
for it was not captured on film
or recorded on tape
or even written about at any length
it is as if the air took it
disseminated it
to the four corners
of the hungry, uncaring universe
that it exists no longer
and all that is left
are fragments of dreams
time's faint impressions

The sound of a familiar line or voice
the expression in a pair of eyes
the incline of a head in mood
the ambience through resonance
of a period in time
the lonely feeling of waiting to audition
on a vast, unfamiliar, empty stage
alone, with only one frail body
and summoned courage to rely upon
the hopes, the expectation, the ambition
the drive, the desire, the desperate wish
to win a part in the play that is life
and all that matters is the moment

Taken from Pamela Sidney's book "Radical Heart" published by Isis-Maat Publications.

Published in "Salvaged from Coreys" Volume 2 Issue 2