Another Brilliant Performance Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Being forced to be in a position,
To show an empathy and understanding...
For someone else's condition,
When your own no one has known.
Could be a test to dramatize.
With all the despair to display,
Prepared to be shown!

When one has been accustomed,
To disguising and hiding pain and agony...
Since a cheerfulness that comes quickly,
Masks a heartache that seems to stay...
With a revealing routine,
Sometimes sarcastic and prickly

And that person who is often counted upon...
To make other's troubles go away,
With the kissing of wounds and stings...
To erase with positive things to say,
Is you?

So what does someone like you do?

Smile!
And give another brilliant performance.
Smile, grin and bare that magic!
Make the wincing done...
A time to joke and have fun!

~You have cancer!
When would you like to schedule your surgery? ~

'Let's make it on the 16th of April.
Somehow that day has significance for me.'