Action

 

1. When the director says action

a man rises from his chair

walks around his desk

and embraces a sobbing woman

who receives his embrace

as though she would collapse without it.

 

2. There is no director this time.

A man rises from his chair

walks around his desk

and embraces a sobbing woman

(his wife, perhaps?)

who receives his embrace

as though she had no other option.

 

3. This time I rise from my chair

walk around my desk

embrace you, my sobbing friend,

and receive your embrace

as though I would collapse without it.

 

4. The director is alone in her office.

She does not rise from her chair.

There is no one there to embrace.

 

About the Author

Jim Richards’s poems have been nominated for Best New Poets, two Pushcart Prizes, and have appeared recently in Sugar House Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Southern Poetry Reviews, South Carolina Review, Juked, Comstock Review, Cumberland River Review, and others. He lives in eatern Idaho’s Snake River valley and has received a fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts.