Ensemble Performance

Dreams arose upon sleep’s beach
as surely as a moon begotten tide
susurring their soft music as they swelled
upon limpid liquidity.
Life swam into the swelling realm
of this phantasmagoria,
this magical aquarium
as mysteries materialized
into belief as real things,
spectral fishes of shallows and abyss
shapeshifting to accommodate
the dreamer’s fears and pleasures,
acting out the playwright’s script
aptly improvising on short cue
to extend the drama,
preventing it from crashing
in upon itself as sudden surf,
fashioning the imagery
from its source
to accommodate
and balance needs and wants
of audience and author
before the curtain, dawn,
opens to another drama
insisting other uses
for the dissolving theater.