Union Songs

The Property Man

A poem by Anise©Anna Louise Strong 1918

In the Chinese theater
                  •   •   •
They have a person
                  •   •   •
Called the PROPERTY MAN,
                  •   •   •
Who stays on the stage
                  •   •   •
ALL the time
                  •   •   •
He hangs up the SUN
                  •   •   •
When it is NEEDED
                  •   •   •
Or he puts up the MOON
                  •   •   •
For a night scene
                  •   •   •
Between lovers
                  •   •   •
He furnishes chairs
                  •   •   •
And tables and ladders
                  •   •   •
Whenever the characters
                  •   •   •
WANT them
                  •   •   •
He is always the SAME
                  •   •   •
Whatever the TIME
                  •   •   •
Or PERIOD
                  •   •   •
Or COSTUMING of the play,
                  •   •   •
He trots around
                  •   •   •
In the same clothes
                  •   •   •
With the same smile
                  •   •   •
Of superior cynisism,
                  •   •   •
Knowing
                  •   •   •
That all the times and changes
And all the high sounding
                  •   •   •
ORATORY
                  •   •   •
Is only ILLUSION
                  •   •   •
Played around objects that he
                  •   •   •
PUTS UP
                  •   •   •
Or PULLS DOWN
                  •   •   •
The Chinese audience
                  •   •   •
Considers him INVISIBLE
                  •   •   •
And have trained themselves
                  •   •   •
NOT to observe him
                  •   •   •
For so LONG
                  •   •   •
That most of them now
                  •   •   •
Don't even SEE him
                  •   •   •
Ther are folks who say
                  •   •   •
That we have such a creature
                  •   •   •
STALKING in our MIDST
                  •   •   •
And that all our world
                  •   •   •
Is just a STAGE
                  •   •   •
And when
                  •   •   •
Our POLITICIANS
                  •   •   •
Make great GESTURES
                  •   •   •
Or indulge in splendid
                  •   •   •
CONTROVERSIES,
                  •   •   •
Or when our noble judges
Punish the guilty
                  •   •   •
And set free the oppressed,
                  •   •   •
As always happens in
                  •   •   •
The best of plays,
                  •   •   •
They say it is an ILLUSION
                  •   •   •
And that the REAL OBJECTS
                  •   •   •
Are PUT UP
                  •   •   •
Or PULLED DOWN
                  •   •   •
By an invisible creature
                  •   •   •
Whose acts condition
                  •   •   •
All ACTORS
                  •   •   •
Who is himself the SAME
                  •   •   •
In all ages
                  •   •   •
Smiling the same smile
                  •   •   •
Of superior cynicism
                  •   •   •
At the virtuous platitudes
                  •   •   •
That cover HIS activities
                  •   •   •
Some folks have called him
                  •   •   •
The "Invisible government,"
                  •   •   •
But I think                  
                  •   •   •
The Chinese gave him
                  •   •   •
A simpler, truer name
                  •   •   •
When they called him
                  •   •   •
The "PROPERTY MAN"!

Notes

This poem was published in the Seattle Union Record 24 May 1919