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False Prophets

False Prophets

By: Bryan Ricardo Marini Quintana


In a wardrobe, Mrs. Siddons masks her identity She wears outlandish attires

To change into characters and escape her reality She parades ludicrous prosthetics

To face the mirror and rejoice in her fantasy

In a vain struggle to find meaning

Mrs. Siddons beholds her reflection

Trying to fill the void by impersonating

Mrs. Siddons contends with her creation

When she’s stripped from a fruitful vocabulary Mrs. Siddons doesn’t reason her existence

When she’s discarded from a picturesque scenery Mrs. Siddons doesn’t know her performance

When she’s heaved from a crystalline lens

Mrs. Siddons doesn’t fathom her expressions

Offstage, she subsists the routines of a colorless reality Yearning to don her masquerading veneer

Onstage, she performs the adventures of a colorful character Returning to dwell in her delusional fantasy

In a game of pretending through limitless costumes She feigns to wield skill

In a game of entertaining with devious illusions She weaves an appealing spell

In a game of transforming into sagacious characters She becomes a pretty doll

Consuming the potion

The performer arrogantly believes she’s

Swallowing the incantation

The masses absurdly believe she’s

Creative as a writer and composer

Erudite as a mythologist and anthropologist

Imaginative as a painter and sculptor

Articulate as a philologist and linguist

Wise as a historiographer and philosopher

When she’s dressed, Mrs. Siddons pretends to be Fearing to lose her disguises

When she’s unveiled, Mrs. Siddons desires to be Acting to mimic her characters

Without her attire, Mrs. Siddons reveals she’s unconscious Donning a persona to live a fantasy

With her attire, Mrs. Siddons feigns she’s conscious Donning a persona to have an identity

Living within a predictable theater

Mrs. Siddons’ world revolves around her

Stepping into an unpredictable unknown

Mrs. Siddons’ world is overthrown

Realizing that without characters she’s bereft of identity Mrs. Siddons returns to her fantasy

In a crowd, Mrs. Siddons appears charmingly

To feign her performance of being skilled

In a crowd, Mrs. Siddons speaks eloquently

To sermon her autocratic vision of the world

Onstage, the masses erect a pedestal for Mrs. Siddons Praising her persona as a beautiful deity

Offstage, the performer hides in marvelous dresses Dragging the world into her delusional fantasy

In a theater, the masses worship Mrs. Siddons

Falling into perdition to venerate a Golden Calf devoid of identity


(Joshua Reynolds, Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, 1783)


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