The Green Gallant

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Where is my next life? Mine is no more.

Where is the unripe? Where is that brave soul?

The successful assassination of the heiress apparent,

 

played by one effeminate esthete, causes a giggle

of discomfort. When they tremblingly cross the stage

 

then raise their shining dagger, their rage is as real

as that of a lioness... And that’s when the stage

lights dim. And that’s when the house goes black.

I watch from the rafters, beside me an evil guardian

(or two) who infect and inject but do not destroy.

No slayer attacks except through gestures.

A backdrop unfurls. No players depart. The curtains

rise and fall as curtains do. Far from the sea

of applause, one major minor standby leaves their body

and flies towards the sun, the moon, the top tier,

eager to revive, dying to revive with a crash.

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Drew Pisarra is the author of You’re Pretty Gay (2021), a collection of short stories published by Chaffinch Press, and Infinity Standing Up (2019), a collection of sonnets published by Capturing Fire Press. A literary recipient of both Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation and Curious Elixirs: Curious Creators, he is also the writer of The Strange Case of Nick M., a radio play commissioned by Imago Theatre and KBOO-FM.

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