An Actress and Her Role

It seems like I've known you forever
As I contemplate yesterday,
And yet it's been only a few months
Since I first volunteered for this play.
Back then you were only ink on a page,
Not at all real or living to me.
But now at the production's end,
I know you'll always be a part of me.
When I bowed the end seemed so final,
And I felt I had lost a great friend:
I never knew it was possible
To miss that which I once saw as pretend.

I labored many exhausting days--
Memorizing lines and learning cues--
Many times looking grudgingly at
The pains and trials that don't amuse.
I ever groaned about the hours
And sighed at the tongue-twisting lines;
Yes, I despised the alien words,
All the quaint phrases and "yea's" and "thine's!"
I scratched my head in confusion
And scoffed at the silliness of it all;
Yes, I doubted my former decision
And the brain that's within my skull!

But one dawn I awoke and perceived
That all my effort was not in vain,
For with every hour I had spent,
More real and living you became.
Not anymore are you just words
Or a vague image in my head;
Oh, no more are you a stranger
Of some distant text I once read . . .
You have become a breathing person
To me in every way, I fear.
Yet, somehow I know that this is how
You were designed to be by Shakespeare.

Now I love everything about you,
Even your quirks and oddities,
And adore all the work I've spent
Putting you and I at ease.
I'll miss the time we've spent together
And grin at the reactions we did cause;
Even when many years have come and gone,
I'll drift back to those days and pause
In pure joy and contemplation,
Recalling all I've learned from you:
A person of imagination
And yet of life and reality, too.

This is my conclusion, so listen well
And remember what it is I say:
Shakespeare was certainly a genius,
For his "children" are still living today.