The cast of the play

I grew up with

keeps changing, their faces evaporating,

the memory of them turning into

file footage, and every year the members of

the dramatis personae become harder

to keep straight.

Sometimes they look like the old actors,

but you can't fool me--they keep reading the lines differently

and ad libbing relentlessly, devising scenes

that I don't recognize,

and taking the plot in directions that I can only look at

through my fingers.

I could swear they haven't read

the script at all, because some of them keep

crashing into the same scenery that everyone

always seems to.

I've been in the audience a while now,

and it seems that a lot of people go to

the concession stand

and never return.

And I can't help but notice

that the seat I used to have

near the middle of the theater

is getting closer to that glowing red sign

in the corner,

and fewer and fewer people seem to notice

if I applaud or not.