A man walks onto a stage
because several people
purchased tickets
to watch him pretend
he knows what he is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is called
a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a light
pointed at his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are people
sitting in darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This arrangement
seems backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He sings a song
about something terrible
that happened thirty years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The audience applauds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The terrible thing
does not improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He sings another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone coughs
during the quietest part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For forty years
he carried instruments
through airports,
hotel lobbies,
snowstorms,
relationships,
recessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backstage
there is usually a mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has watched
the person inside it
grow old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The audience has too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His hands are slower now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His stories are better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the bargain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His name is announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He walks into the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for ninety minutes
a roomful of strangers
agrees to listen
while another stranger
makes vibrations in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then everybody puts on their coats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chairs are stacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone sweeps the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing has been solved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody has been rescued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for a little while
a roomful of people
were lonely
at exactly the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which is not nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man walks onto a stagebecause several peoplepurchased ticketsto watch him pretendhe knows what he is doing. This is calleda career. There is a lightpointed at his face. There are […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[902],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}