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Writer's pictureValerie Bowden

Life’s a Stage

The roles are played by players who are not equipped to choose

The characters, the set, the scene, the words.

Instead we all are actors who assume our role, and play

As we move from place to place. Our lines are heard

By none, because there is no script, there is no fixed routine.

We’re all players in an ever changing scene.


The first act that we play in is the one when we are born.

We take our first breath when we start to cry.

The last in which we take a part, is later, though not fixed

In time, because that’s when we start to die.

You see, all life’s a play script, in which all take a part

We all,have much to say when once we start.

Our life is plotted out for us- that’s what some people say:

We have no part in shaping life: all’s Fate!

We make our future, argue others, putting forth their view

That actions past shape a predictable state.

Whichever fence you sit on, whatever view you take,

Reality’s gives the answer: life’s at stake.


Our first role is the moment when we take our first deep breath,

Our last role is the time we start to die.

In time between we take the stage, roles are changed so often

As we air our wants and needs. None should decry

These roles, they all are vital, though all are not the same.

Life is Nature’s word for playing a game.


Dependency so utter-it is frightening- is the first

Of all the games we play. But soon comes change,

As almost in an instant comes the next stage in the life:

The young become the rulers. It’s so strange .

The adults have allowed their young to take the upper hand,

And from that time they’re sure to take a stand.

Between the age of four and ten we are content to stay

Within the confines of the hearth. We are constrained

As we develop, until change shows itself once more,

Bringing confidence and energy unrestrained.

The teenage years bring problems and play a part unique.

This role, though young assumes a style antique.


The next great role that is now cast lasts longer than those past,

It is the role of adult: building towers.

Some may be large, though oft times, small: they may be good or bad.

But whatever they are they all have certain powers.

These towers become the hallmarks, they become the last, the mould

For shaping what the Future time will hold.


In adulthood the range of roles is great. They offer scope

For playing parts diverse. They can include

The role of spouse, though often partnership,

Then following very quickly, parenthood.

To juggle roles is now the task: accountant, nurse and teacher,

Judge, technician, decorator: various roles will feature.


As time goes by there comes once more another role to play,

The generation gap decrees the need.

Once again the script has changed: there’s one more part to take,

That they’re contradictory roles is true indeed.

One sees oneself in no man’s land with plot laid out so clear:

Provider, carer for our young and for our old folk dear


So, in reality life’s merely but an ever changing play,

We are the players who play their part onstage.

Act one is followed quickly by Act two, and soon we see

The last Act turning quickly o’er life’s page

How we perform is up to us, we have to take our part,

We are prompted by the feelings in our heart.

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