The Charlie Chaplain Look-Alike Contest

Meg Petersen

In the Charlie Chaplain look-alike contest,

Chaplain himself placed third.

I imagine him moving with his trademark shuffle

up to the judges, tipping his derby hat

smiling quizzically as he accepts the white third-place ribbon.

I have to wonder how hard he tried.

Did he move his cane just so,

shuffle in his oversized shoes?

But I know it’s hard after all

to really be yourself.

And what of those other two

more genuine than the real thing?.

Did they wonder?

If perhaps some cosmic joke had been played,

If one of them was not, perhaps, really more real than…?

And I imagine Charlie nodding wryly to the judges

in appreciation, as if to congratulate them,

as if to say they had been wise not to be fooled

by the merely real.