Recurrent Dreams: Role Play

My costumes and props are imagined,

my stage directions spoken aloud

as I shift through scenes,

playing more roles than one.

The other actors are antagonists

both in character and heart,

    for my insistence sounds like silence

    and my shouts turn heads the other way.

I am angry like a child

playing pretend on a stage,

surrounded by bigger kids

that don't want to play by the rules.

But should my demands turn to threats

    and I rip up the floorboards,

        the curtains will fall to the rising sun,

        and only I will remain.

And yet, I am still a child,

playing pretend on a stage,

    wishing for a grown-up

        to come make it right again.