NOTHING BECOMES HER AS THE LEAVING

It is not her place to stay.
It is her’s to exit–
When the fat lady
drops her last
sonorous note
it is then
when she leaves us
with only our applause
perhaps her scent
behind the empty
flapping of a scrim
the hollow swing
of a back stage door.
And this is
when she is most beautiful
when she is
no more.

–Douglas Holder