Stories

It seems to me now

That this story

Has reached a crux

And I don’t know

Where it will go.

There are so many

Paths it could take.

There’s the version

Where one of them dies,

The version where they all die,

And the version

Where the good guys win,

The invaders are defeated, and

True love conquers all.

Nobody dies in that one.

There’s the alternative

Universe, where

He’s really an alien

And the rest are zombies

And they eat one another’s brains.

There’s the one where they all

Learn to do magic

And lay down their lives

Fighting the enemy.

And the universe where

They never meet at all.

There’s the story where

Love is true, but it’s

Unrequited, or

Unwise, or unwittingly ill-given;

There’s the love

Between friends, between

Siblings, between lovers, comrades,

Like-minds, and

Between those who can

Never even touch.  There’s

Love, and there’s death.

These are all stories.

Maybe in ours

No-one is ever going

Even to speak

The first line of the play.

Maybe this story is all

Pinteresque silence,

Blindness and regret.

Or maybe this will be

The one where all my scenes

Were cut, or the one

Where you and I

Were written out

Before rehearsals began.

I’m waiting

I’m waiting for my cue

But I don’t know the scene we’re in

Or what part anyone plays.

I don’t know if you

Will fight at my side

Or put up your sword and

Turn away in embarrassment.

I don’t know if my friends

Are the heroes or the enemy,

Or even the zombies.

I’m lost in here

And the story rolls on.

Is this the way it ends, then?

The crux of the plot

A crucial scene

Between the characters

Who matter; the commanders

Their captains-at-arms, and

You, their champion.

And I sit in the back room

Worrying, and am

Forgotten about

While others nurse the heroes’ wounds

After the battle is won.

It seems to me now

This story could go

Completely off the rails

Or come home happy

Or, just end.

Who knows? – but

All I want now is

Just to get it over with.

So leave me alone, in peace

Let me turn the pages

And see.