I never played Hamlet,

I was just the performer --


who was playing him.

When we were children
My sister and I rejected
The role of princess.
They were pretty but weak--
Always needing to be rescued!
And we preferred the chiseled faces
The greater command of queens.
We stood on our beds at night,
Wool blankets turned to velvet capes.
And we declared our power
In broad, silly proclamations
Such as “Queen of the Dolls”!
Or Rulers of the Woods
That stretched off to the east
Of our little house,
That became a castle
Guarded by hooting owls
and Baskerville hounds.
Arms outstretched, our capes
Made leaping sparks
And we shouted in our glory.
After tiring of commands
We launched ourselves into the air
And for a moment, ruled the earth,
Suspended above our queendom
Until we fell onto our beds
And laughed with joy,
For were we not landing
On stacks of feathers,
Piled high to avoid a pea,
Laid there just for us?

I tried to wake you up
You wouldn't stir
I thought you were sleeping
You weren't
You were playing dead
Messing with my head
Your sick game of pretend
So in my resentment
I pulled out a gun
I turned you into the real thing

The tones are dancing,

tumbling across each other –


never falling down.

He puts his plaything

in the box, a precise fit –


the garage is.

Looking for the ball

we decide to change the game –


into hide-and-seek.

It is in a fold of the untold,
In a soliloquy full of rage on an empty stage,
In an instant photo that goes beyond,
In the wave that tunnels like a cave,
In a place that I couldn’t retrace,
In an undeciphered mark on the Lost Ark,
On a probe that disappears into the sky,
That hides the answer to why.  

Or - this is nothing new -

Right Within You.

Keeping my head back

I look out, driven through streets –


of chimneys and roofs.