The dream of a fool,

Many might say

We’re capitalist’s tools,

As we’re on our way

Surviving as slaves

On minimum wage at Wal-Mart or K-Mart

Striving for the day until we get the part

They say they’ll find my corpse on the road

That I’ll be squashed like an unseen toad

By the pressure of my impossible dream

They only see the struggle, the filth

An inscrutable path that’ll leave me wasted and killed

I don’t expect you to understand

If I can’t explain as Silvia Plath

Of living, of dying in the theater

How it infuses a satisfaction that lasts

When I make people laugh,

As I make people cry

It’s true I can’t lie

This career has nothing assured

I know, I’ve done the math

But…

It’s my greatest desire

To cultivate this art

I’m sorry mom and dad

This is my way of being smart

I want to be there,

With lights flashing center stage

Letting lines fly, becoming  a mage

Enchanting the audience’s ears and eyes

Telling the story of a borrowed life

Writing its book as they turn the page

Teaching lessons to those who have not quite,

Gathered insight, with every act

Witnessed this night, or any night, or any day

As long as I live