Richard Merelman

The Play, In Play
 
They trudge through their parts in a play
where she and he stray, and soon pay.
Rather unlikely
in reality:
he and she
in the hay.

Imagine the play on a night
where the moon trains light on the site
of one scene whose theme
is love as a dream,
not a scheme
or a fright.

They perform the scene in the hope,
this night, to test its truth. They grope
each other later,
lolling in nature.
Maid, satyr,
an old trope.

Will their one-nighter tilt the arc
of the play to ardor from snark?
Will the text be bent,
not seem what was meant:
love left spent
on a lark?

Richard Merelman is Professor of Political Science (Emeritus), University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he published articles and books on culture and politics in Western democracies. He has published four volumes of poetry, of which the most recent, A Door Opens (Fireweed, 2020), received an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2021 from the Wisconsin Library Association.  He has published poems in Stoneboat, Lake Effect, 3rd Wednesday, The Road Not Taken, descant, Raven, and Main Street Rag, among others. Recent poems are in THINK, the Loch Raven  Review, and Pinch. Privately published in March, 2025 is “My Americana,” a chapbook of twenty poems drawing on episodes in 19th and 20th century American history.