Self-Portrait as Role I Didn't Try Out For but Got Anyway
My least favorite
Shakespeare play
in junior high had to be
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. Seems no one
really wanted to play
Bottom, get turned
into an ass inside
that play within a play—
Pyramus & Thisbe
was it? I always got
overlooked for any
parts with lots of lines—
wasn’t white enough—
played those parts
where I wasn’t
required to speak—
the Changeling, or
worse, the kids asked
me if I wanted to
not try out for the Wall
but the “chink” the wall
held. Everyone had
a good laugh, even
the teacher. Later on
that year at the cast
party, a stud who starred
as Lysander came up
to the punch bowl
and asked if I preferred
Nips over Cheez-Its—
hahahahahahaha!
There were no words
for microaggressions
back then. I got good
playing the butt of jokes,
not knowing how on earth
I’d get the last laugh
when the curtains fell.
Recommended
Elegy for David in Yellowstone National Park
Ultrasound with Bird
Father in Chiaroscuro