'S The Spirit

This whole morality play has gone off-
Broadway, spilling out into streets
in a roaring flood, trickle-down

into civilized streams babbling
to murmuring brooks

as competing, repertory companies
destined to long lingering end
a bad case of the runs

in poor showings at poorly
attended community and regional theater

locations, meagerly pitifully staffed with
an insufficient number
of has-beens, driven to performances
by their moms (or for that matter, meek and mild
-mannered grandsons, hoping soon to cash in on such last-
gasp belated goodwill) that would embarrass most
borderline high-school equivalency plays, to a degree

greater or lesser, all depending on the night.

This should be a breeze, people. These characters are world-
famously unidimensional and wonderdeveloped, and to a less
infamous degree, the writer as well. The show

must go on if we are,

to pack them in,

willing to die in public. What's

that smell? OH

That's me.

I've been swimming upstream in this downward trek
all the days of my life.

"I love it."