Ghostlight

Another performance ended
For better or for worse
Silence has descended
Tragedy and farce

Quiet where there was chaos
Footsteps echoing across the dark
The stage empty of players
A single light, white and stark

It stands alone stage center
Just a plain bulb on a stand
Upon the well worn boards
Placed by the last stagehand

After the curtain closes
The final lines have ceased
The empty theatre is silent
The memories are released

How many have walked this stage
With dreams so like mine?
Hungering for the applause
Intoxicating as wine.

How many heartbreaks?
Joyful and bitter tears?
Real or imagined?
Confidence and fears?

How many dreams began
Or ended in this place?
Ghosts of the past arise
Echoing across time and space

And who will come after me
And stand here late one night
And find peace in the silence
In the glow of the ghostlight?


For those of you who don't know, the ghostlight is a plain bulb on a stand that is put on the middle of the stage when the theatre closes so the people who open i the morning can see where they are going. It burns all night.