AN ACTOR IN MY COMPANY

Tossed from the Strip
after he escaped
on his Harley
to route 66
in the snow
wanting a dream
to be an actor
in his twentieth year
out to Chicago
doing Brecht
then to New York City
studying with
Stella Adler
doing stand up
to make money
in the Borscht Belt
and being Hamlet
in Provincetown's
summer stock
going to Miami Beach
as a chess bum
writing letters
in four tongues
to the elderly,
like Whitman visiting
veteran hospitals
of the war wounded
finding safety
at twenty five
only on the stage
of his own collapse.