THE THEATER

Some performances end. Others unravel

She entered late.
The lights were dimming.
Her seat was deep in the row.
Too far in to reach without contact.

Knees.
Toes
A dropped purse/

Mummering apologies 
she kept moving.

The stage held.
Each act opened a another world.
Voices steady.
Bodies precise.

Then, at the end of a line
One of them collapsed
Not forward.
Not back.
A body turned to fabric.

She blinked looked up,
The string above the pile hung slack.

Another
A line
A fall
Cloth

She watched the strings, 
one by one loosened

When the lights came up, 
The stage was still, 
small piles of fabric 
where people had stood.

She turned.
The theater was empty.