Just Stop It—Don’t Take Stock

All kinds of folks seem to like
To play at the kinds of folks

They aren’t, to act out the scenes
From lives they don’t live, can’t know,

But think they might like, an hour.
Not once done this? Good for you,

If that’s true. And is it true?
When it’s you that’s the role played,

By or not by you, is when
It starts to feel a bit strange.

You act you. Then they act you,
Or what they think is like you,

Or what they think one like you
Would do, should do, ought to do.

Then you do, too. You’re not you,
And they’re not you, and you’re not

Them. It’s all a sham, down to
These bare bones of you and them,

These terms used, the you, the them.
You’re not an act or at play.

There’s a house used for a stage
On which you and them get played.