32 Are All the Characters You’ve Played Real?

If by real you mean as real as a kitten’s claw stuck
in your hand, the smell of a diaper bin on trash day,
the blast of cold air from an open freezer—
then, of course, every character is real, every gesture,
smile, and scream. Wait. They are all made up—most of them—
and when I say I am an actor, it means I have portrayed
all of them, a whole neighborhood of past roles.
Can you picture the number of rehearsals and run-throughs?
Even now, my characters plan a great scene
for us—one crosses downstage left, one enters from
upstage right. One waits for Godot and one sits motionless
on the green chair. One stabs her daughter, another
kisses her first love passionately, and every single
one of them wonders when the curtain will fall.