Shadow Play Poem by Margaret Alice Second

The challenge is bigger than I thought – playing
charades to make the world go round, playing
games to keep illusions alive, living within your
convictions, following your rules and regulations

Describing the world as you insist it should be
though the five senses reveal something which
is entirely different, not giving away I am aware
this is a play to reconcile conflicting situations

Wait - this is a comedy, once we know that deep
inside everybody chooses his life’s game to learn
spiritual greatness, staying calm, tackling the self-
created problem with resignation and fortitude

We shall all be winners together in this shadow
play, everybody does it, becomes reconciled to
their own choices, however imbecile – if they
can, so can I…

Refusing to move means being paralysed, refusing
to exercise means muscles atrophied, being left to
immobile fixation means frozen attitudes, people
who refuse to follow physiotherapists end up in
wheel-chairs

You take an interest and threaten with aggression
that someone given freedom to remain motionless
for three months must get up again – guess what,
she cannot; threats cannot replace intelligence
and common sense

I am completely at ease, following your decrees
and requirements, life is a game for learning so
here we go, let the games begin…