Friday, May 6, 2022

Absolute Truth is a Play

The performers step out into the lights, their shoes in calculated footsteps

which they've done many times before, each time learning 

until the performance is perfected.

Yet there's always a choice when they reach the table:

knives or apples?

The actors need knives to cut apples, but they could just as easily use their teeth

to take a bite.

Violence then, does little to solve a problem but often creates more.

So are these truths?

Is this absolute truth? The performers walk around the table,

in circles, like dancers,

as their legs cast shadows in the strong lights from overhead

I see one actor squint his eyes

as if narrowing them to make a decision

He takes an apple from the table and throws it into the air,

by the time the apple comes down

gravity has shown us

all we need to know.