The Hamlet Project

Now there’s a practiced speech.
He is politic and clear –
Eloquent in his long cliffside path
Winding from top to bottom
Along the seashore
Safely.
He has looked down at the pounding surf
Seen the gaping ravine on the other side
Negotiated the boulder in the middle of the road
While edging his way home.
He would be an excellent politician
One with pointed rhetoric
With directed desire
Striking both submission and strength
In the same note.
Later in the play he will rally the people
Around him and his cause
He could quickly turn the tide if he wanted.
Perhaps he’d have made the best leader in the cast, here.
Better than incomprehensible killing Claudius
Better than introspective, wavering Hamlet
Better than Gertrude, with her shifting loyalties
Better than Polonius who can’t shut up
Better than the original Hamlet – the old, war-like one, with his shining moment
Glowing from his ability to kill.
If there were an election for the King of Denmark
Despite the fact that I’d want Hamlet the younger to win,
Because I love him and think he’s a great guy,
I might choose Laertes.
Because a politician should be good at being a politician I suppose.