Paper Moon

all the world’s a stage with omnipresent cell phones

whatever you do doesn’t count until you take the picture or make the video and post it to your friends who become your audience to the extent they are interested parents are becoming directors and kids poseurs and then they switch OK I’ll be the parent now

of course we have known all along that we wear masks to get through the day and invent our roles as we go along largely catering to what our audience expects

but when the affable salutatorian lifeguard back from his first year of college hangs himself in the basement which mask does the audience expect

I know I know life goes on it’s only a paper moon hanging over a cardboard sea the level of which keeps rising but what if it were real

and people knew who they were in their heart of hearts or at least who they want to be and tried to find out who’s hurting and wears his mask ironically