Taorminas Props

We heard interesting stories
about Pulcinella and Columbina
from the greek theater's crouded street
where the player's act turned slowly
into a vague costume piece.

The silent shop-window
filled with amazements
unraveled its jugglers
sentenced to movelessness
and stoned actors meant for improvisation,
enchanted us in a silent confession.

The comedy took a new lease of life
when Dujardins's characters became alive
between the sets of the darkened shop-window
and performed their improvisational theater,
the famous Rostand peace
wherein the Gascon poet
fights a duel with Death
in a mindless fray
then drops down dead
to break his woman's heart
and turn our piece
into a ceremony of gloom.

People walked on by, silently,
beside the shadows of their inadvertence,
others stayed inside Brighella's cafe,
sent Arlecchino for a lukewarm capucino
and listenen to the harmonies
of a sweet calypso.

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