The Hamlet Project

Long Live the King
This is a platitude, really
An auto-response.
Who am I?
I’m fine, thank you.
Oh, it’s you.
Yes, of course. And how are you?
Chilly for this time of year, isn’t it?
So we miss each other
But somehow in missing each other
We recognize the figure caught out of the corner of our eye
Through the mirror.
*
What concern to me is the lifespan of a king? He lives, he dies – so?
Except,
A king dies and his nation shudders
“What will come next?”
It is an earthquake shift, this death.
Maybe it will end happier
Maybe it will end with houses spilled into ravines, ponies on roofs, poles
Through guts, broken limbs.
Maybe we will all be healed
But it will, none the less, shake us.
So we pray for his life. Because it is our own.
Long Live the King.