The Hamlet Project

Mr. Hamlet would pick up
Little Horatio after baseball practice.
He’d ask after his mother
Give him a juicebox
Pat him on the shoulder
When some injustice at school stained his face with tears.
Mr. Hamlet, like a second father,
Watched Horatio grow
Getting taller and shorter and taller
than his son.
When the boys came home from school
Mr. Hamlet asked after Horatio’s
Prospects, how he found his housing
How he enjoyed the weather.
Did they know each other?
Certainly.
But did Horatio know how Mr. Hamlet
Longed for a patch of land
Near his old estate?
Did he know how he
Withered a bit
Whenever his proud cousin came to town?
Did he know about that night one September
When he sat in the kitchen with his belt around his neck,
Standing on a kitchen chair wondering?
Certainly not.
But one doesn’t need to know another’s secrets
To know him, right?
The man who sells the apples on the streets is known to many.
If he were to disappear
Many a fruit eater
Would contribute to the search call for help
Mourn his absence.
Even if no one ever knew
His love for daisies,
He would be known and lost.