ABSENT A PASSION PLAY, by Allan RozinskiIn the windows of the stores,
in magazines, on billboards and screens,
manikins are dressed to kill,
or to simply advertise their wares;
and then there are the
marionettes, automated,
in constant motion,
window shopping
with imagined needs to fulfill,
while elsewhere
pliable puppets submit themselves
to be molded, bent or broken
to fit the roles they’ve chosen, or
to play the parts they’d auditioned for.
Hordes of extras join the cast
without consideration or protest
in exchange for payment
or for the hopeful comfort
of some semblance of applause,
and, at each level above,
in turn, it builds, stage upon stage,
an endless spectacle at large,
a free-form bunraku theater
inspired by the Grand Guignol,
absent a passion play.
