Scott Simpson · Poetry
II. Fiction
The World We Mean · Illusion, Simulation, and Trust · Singing · II. Fiction
All poetryThe original line breaks, stanza spacing, and placement are preserved. Long lines scroll horizontally.
Poem segment 1
II. Fiction
In the theater
everyone knows the town is painted.
The rain is light on a wire.
The blood is syrup.
The actor dying each night
takes the subway home afterward.
Still—
when the daughter cries
beside the hospital bed,
the room tightens.
Someone in the third row
wipes their face quietly
with the back of a hand.
The body responds
to structure.
To timing.
To tension.
To the shape of consequence.
We do not need events to be real
for response to become real.
This is not deception.
It is participation.
The heart enters the pattern
and completes it.
Which is also how belief works.
And memory.
And fear.
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