One half frowns, the other half grins
We make of it what we can, but nobody wins.

In the folds of my cape
I feel my fallen heart try to escape.

I tighten my grip on my fakest old prop
To prop up the broken dolly grip’s strop.

Behind the scenes he cries too,
But only because he’s part of this crew.

To star would be nice: my name up in lights…
Instead I show my knobbly knees in these tights.

But I’ll keep on laughing, or crying, if needed,
And I’ll don this old wig to cover my hairline receded.

It’s all for the show, and the show must go on.
It’ll continue to run even after I’m gone.

And I’ll be forgotten like a lamb come roast dinner.
And I’ll be cast out as a miserable sinner.

But you’ll never forget the moments that broke you
As you laughed and you cried in the scenes that provoke you.

Evoking that spirit in silence and awe,
And the curtain will drop as I slowly withdraw.

Sir Patrick Stewart, English actor, was born today in 1940.

Harrison Ford, American actor, was born on this day in 1942.