Work Text:
Embers of the fireplace flicker and flicker and fly and die
I descend the stairs without trembling
Honey on toast, sweeter than accustomed, spoiling my tongue
I take breakfast without interrogation of my daughter’s dealings
I pass by the mailroom, skipping my rifling
through the letters to find missive from Reynaldo
The tenth hour, in the court, all of us reined and saddled
I search my mind for the judgement that would have been there, but
it’s fallow, not much of a farm at all
but that does mean I am free to drive around the carters to wherever I please
My brows are dry when Claudius gives me that look
I cough and wink and he sighs with grace
I roll my eyes at the prince and his mother
and I was forty-five and having tea with them again
performing a cushion for Hamlet to crawl over
me as uncostumed as my flesh allows
Lessened are my words, lessened are my thoughts
Lessened are the piles of documents queued
upon my desk for me to examine
Lessened is my life! But a thin life
is turning out to be workable
if not enjoyable
(I would never lessen my beard, though, my dear prince!)
Tomorrow
presses unpressingly
A massage upon my mind
A message upon my play
Dragging on, staggering on, and the wheels
mark the mud with little rivets
that run wild when the rain falls
and washes us to somewhere buoyant,
unweighed