Who Can Say?

(Enter, center stage, main character, spotlit in limelight)

***

I can't say I wasn't warned

That I wouldn't escape unscathed

Or exit the stage safe and unharmed

Or uncovered of fallout, filthy, unbathed

***

I can't say I wasn't told

That my word choice would set in motion

A cadence dangerous, resented, and tolled

With the bile of a bitter ruminate potion

***

I can't say that it was wise

Scripting her redemption in my bespoke words

To invite her to know what they comprise

And what they said of whom I preferred

***

I wanted to say the woman she was

Had her faults and foibles and missteps untrue

But the verbiage I used gave her pause

Condemning her cruelly as people "like you"

***

Someone "like you" could do no better

Than to sidestep herself to step in my shoes

And dismantle self-worth—make her a debtor

And escape from the role in my play—who knew?

***

My stage is set, simple and bare

For a story that was written as a one-act play

No tension, no conflict, no dialogues: no pair

Only a monologue that reads best in cliché

***

(Exit, the fool)