The Part

Why do well meaning pairs
Knock on forbidding doors
Opened by puzzled stares?
If inhospitality deplores
Being interrupted by two
Complete strangers, holy
Or not, still unasked, who
Benignantly, but boldly
Await welcome or waiver
Of sanctuary...politeness
Insists open arms savor
A practiced contriteness.
Whose part the hypocrite,
If all the cast play it?

--H. Arlequin