The Sleeping Actor
for Adam Purvis
He sleeps
His head resting on his homework
Brown hair spread across the pages
Pencil still poised on notebook.
His eyes slowly open
Exposing orbs of sea green.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
He rests
Stretched out on the cold stone floor
Like an angel fallen from the sky
Waiting for his cue to perform the miracle.
Exhausted by his performance
He curls up in a chair behind the scenes
To sleep out the remainder of the show.
But ever wary of pouncing girls,
Eager to frighten him from slumber.
Rae Douglass
Backstage at SLT’s "Gypsy"
9-7-97