The Hamlet Project

Marcellus has Hamlet’s schedule memorized.
Is he hanging out by his locker
Trying to look casual
As Hamlet gets out of class?
Does he just happen to pass him in B Hallway
Sometimes?
I want to give Marcellus a Blackberry
With schedules in it
So he can compare where he is and
Where Hamlet might be next.
Of course, Marcellus probably doesn’t have a crush on the Prince.
The place they’ll find him conveniently
Seems to be the place everyone is that morning –
A kind of Royal State of the Union address
Where presumably anyone could find anyone
Most conveniently.
Why do I prefer a story about unrequited love?
It’s a kind of imagination spin off.
Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead or Lee Blessing’s Fortinbras
But this time unlucky Marcellus gets a play –
One wherein he’s painfully jealous of Horatio
And eyes Ophelia suspiciously everytime he sees her.
Maybe he even pushes her into the stream.
No, no, that goes too far.
But maybe he has Pirate friends he sends after Hamlet once he’s sent to England
And ghostlike he saves his life from afar.
Maybe Marcellus finally gives up in Act IV
And misses the final bit and if he’d been there
He would have saved them all or at least
Our Hamlet. His Hamlet.
He knows where to find that one most conveniently.