Our Favorite Actress

Michael Judge

We are, in a public setting, comforted
by the lack of expectations 

until something awful happens,
an accident, someone choking 

on a peach pit, for example.
Or worse, something intentional 

but entirely unexpected, inappropriate,
the indiscriminate shooting of passengers 

on a train, for example. We get sleepy
in public. We fall asleep in the audience, 

lulled by the comfort of coughs,
laughter, the crowd breathing in and out. 

It all feels so civilized until
our favorite character, played 

by our favorite actress, falls
face-first into the orchestra pit. 

The show continues with no understudy.
Death grants us a private audience.

 

Michael Judge has published poems in The Southern Review, Sycamore Review, and Poet Lore, among other publications. A poet and freelance journalist, he lives in Iowa City, Iowa, with his wife, Masae, and their son, Maximilian.

 
Photo by Viktor Forgacs