“An another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market —
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, whose loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
…The whole act.
Who will do it again? That’s it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren’t the same.”
It occurs to me... 