The Stand-In Poem by Sean Green

The stand-in has their place
a substitute in many ways
for the creature kept within
fully cowed by cries of sin

evoked on lips as the truth
conveyed out loud in perpetude
from the elders seeped in fear
a bias passed through the years

this masquerade responds in kind
the doppelganger all to mild
seeking peace with the world
at any price is the resolve

while behind the private mask
a hell exists without regard
for the pretender strutting round
the stand-in within the bounds.

© 2019. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved.20191009.