Court Your Shrewd Applause

Give me that time again and I won’t play the
fool. I’ll learn all the lines this time, recite them
with a winning style. I know the how and why, I
can smile in the appropriate places, gesture
with largesse, gesticulate. It is not too late
to include me in the cast.

It was only a Prologue to the Tales where my
role was to walk the aisles, show off the ancient
words with dextrous flair I haven’t used again
these vacant years. I was prepared to flirt with the
audience, smear them with risqué jam and wet
them wickedly with damp innuendo.

I dared to be different then, a character in the
rough who came for succour, for acclaim. Now
I’ll play the part that Chaucer had in mind when
he wrote the Tales. It will not be an inimitable Ivan
striding the boards but an actor of stable sort
who’s come to mildly court your shrewd applause.
© 1 May 2007, I.D. Carswell