stAge Fright Edit 2.0 Thanks to all who helped.

[tectak]

Say what you wish, now we're alone
inside our common dread;
I will not speak or criticise.
The time we squeeze
between warm palms
must not slip free to run like sand
through clapping hands,
still hot with praise
and swollen red.
I say so little anymore,
of consequence or worth.
Since youth bowed out
--exit stage left--
and credence left on cue,
this play has gone
from bad to worse.

tectak
2012