interruption

What is love but a whisper in a theater,
just barely perceptible,
somewhere in the crowd,
some will hear and ignore and
other will inch closer, desperate to
make sense of muffled syllables.
What is love but the whisper growing louder,
turning eyes away from the performance –
How garish. How rude.
And louder, still, loud enough
the actors can no longer perform, but
have joined in the gawking. How awful.
It’s ruined the whole show.