A Pantomime...

I sit here and watch
as we act out our parts -
we laugh and we joke,
we sing and we dance.
So many different characters,
so many different lives -
so many different stories.

The girl who is laughing hides such sorrow -
the tears and the pain -
her brothers, two, are in the cast,
but they act out a different part.

The guy whose life seems so perfect -
the looks and the grades -
his brother is in the cast,
but he acts out a different part.

The girl who has grown, but is still so young -
her life, the way she lives.
Her brother, too, is in the cast,
but he acts out a different part.

However despite all the acting,
the lives and the rhymes,
the activity and the life,
something is missing.
The normal has changed and something seems wrong.

We feel that she should be here,
a part of our play.
Showing us dances and singing us songs,
but now
someone else stands in her place.

She played her part - she read her lines
and then
a finale
that took her all.

We'll remember her this year.
And we'll remember her friends
who are in the cast,
and we'll watch them
act out
their different parts.