Inconspicuous Conclusions
(after the style of John Donne's “This is my play's last scene ”)

A play’s last scene has often served as trope:
where theater, as metaphoric scheme,
enables authors to compose a dream
of Life as it exhausts its mortal scope.
The actors in our own Life’s play, we “hope”
and “love;” some “challenge fate;” some “sob” and “scream,”
but all personify Forever’s theme:
that with its ending, Life must simply cope.
I cannot speak for others in the cast,
but my bit-part as extra in The Show --
as son and father, husband to the last --
gave me such joy as any man could know.
I’ve lived a lucky life. Of this I’m certain.
So when my last scene ends, ring down the curtain.

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright © 2024