I think we are strangers
I want to love you, but I don't know who you are
Do you know?
It's hard to love someone you don't know
You don't seem to know who I am
Do you really want to?

We continue to dance in circles 
But never to the same tune
All stomped on toes
And elbows to the ribs
Frustrated and blaming the other

Our sketches of the other
Horrific distortions 
Each of us unrecognizable
In the images we hold up to each other
Like a horrible collaboration of Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall

We speak to each other in discordant tones
Two different conversations occurring in the same time and space
Cacophonous and dissonate 
Everything lost in translation

-gws

Where are the love song sentiments
The reluctant partings
The needful longings
The passionate reunions
The soul worshiping
The celebration of every tiny quirk or trait
The promises of lifetime comfort
The celebrations of loving someone as they are
For exactly who and what they are

The love songs lied and now all end in tears
One day, who you are will not be who they want you to be
And the same will be true as you look at them
There will be no celebration 
And you will wonder if there ever really was
I don't think there ever was

I think I was what was supposed to happen
Chosen to be cast in a role because I showed up to the audition
And no one else was qualified for the role
I learned the lines and the choreography
And it was good enough for a time
But good enough only gets you by for a time

I thought I really earned the part
That I embodied the role
That compliments were sincere
That the applause was genuine
But the flowers stopped coming at the end of the show

The costumes no longer fit
The auditorium is empty 
Or worse, filled with disappointment and resentment
But I cannot remove the makeup
No matter how hard I scrub
And I cannot leave the stage
Because the show must go on
So I repeat the same steps on the worn floor
The soulless smile failing to light my eyes
Enduring until the music ends

-gws