Cancel things; pretend all's well,
Admit it's not. Learn to conjugate all the genres of misery:
Tears, torpor, boredom, lassitude, yearnings
For a simpler illness, like a broken leg.
Enduring ceremonial delays. Being referred
Somewhere else. Consultant's holiday. Saying Thank you,
For anything to everyone
Not the star part.
And who would want it? I jettison the spear,
The servant's try, the terrible drone of Chorus:
Yet to my thinking this act was ill advised
It would have been better to die*. No it wouldn't!
I am here to make you believe in life.
*Chorus: from Oedipus Rex, trans. EF Watling
The final line seems inevitable. ‘I am here to make you believe in life’ is a powerful statement of human desire to live. The terse imperative, after all the other imperatives, especially in stanza four, provides a moving and dramatic, ironic conclusion. This command is not to herself, but by the speaker to the reader.
A Minor Role