What is the meaning of trumpets?
What do drums signify?
Harpsichord means Harpsichord
Ukulele, Ukulele
But those two bass notes mean a shark is coming.
Those three young voices singing in ascendance
Mean magical help is on its way.
When we hear those sharp strings striking
In quick succession,
We know it means a knife is doing quick work.
Music in the middle of the night in Denmark
Means that the king is up drinking, apparently.

The winter of the day draws near
Or rather, the winter of the night.
The autumn was a short brisk one
Around twilight.
The summer, a bright afternoon.
When spring broke in the morning
Through the blinds
It made the hour bloom
As each minute opened its blossoms.

They told me this life would be hard.
They said, “Talent isn’t enough.” They said
Only a few would find a way, that it
Would likely break my heart. They
Suggested I find some other thing to chase,
To set my sights on some other dream.
There was something about the odds
Something about the hardships
Something about the poverty
Something about the roller coaster
Something about perpetual rejection
Something about sacrifice and compromise.
They very definitely warned me.

Taking the word apart
Like a finished jigsaw puzzle
Breaking it off into chunks
Folding it up to put in the box
Taking piece from interlocking piece,
I find the pieces point to something about
The whole.
When someone tells us something remarkable,
We do not say “in-word?”
or “In truth?” or “in thought?”
No, for the real truth about something,
We look to ACTION
We look to what has been done
We will always trust that first.

Twelve
Missing something
Missing its essential Twelveness.
It feels itself becoming itself
Becoming twelve
But there’s a hole there.
If only it had that little bit, that little missing piece,
Twelve would be the full embodiment of Twelve –
It would be all of its potential.
It would be the oak tree, not just
The acorn’s roots and branches.
There are words here.

Horatio’s air is the energetic younger brother
To Hamlet’s shrewd biting air.
They travel together. The elder air, cagey and searching
For the optimum spot to sink its teeth in and the younger
Bops along next to him, just grazing the skin anywhere he can find some,
Like a puppy playing next to a fierce guard dog.

When I was in high school
I learned a chunk of The Actor’s Nightmare
Which was all about a guy playing Hamlet
But he doesn’t know the part.
It’s also about the same guy in a Noel Coward play, I think.
Despite the fact that I barely recall the structure,
I still recall that this was the scene in it
Because Horatio said “I warrant it will” and the guy trying to be Hamlet said
“I warrant it will also.”
Now and forever, I will likely hear
“I warrant it will also.” After “I warrant it will.”
Which may be a vote for doing actual texts in one’s youth
Rather than parodies
Because those things we learn young
Will stick around
In the sticky recesses of the brain
Warranting it will also.

A sable silvered
Seven Silver Salad Servers
Slivered slippery snakes
I picture something like a ferret
A tabby ferret maybe
Turning grey
Growing older
Slower
Sleek still
Sleek enough to slip
Through someone’s fingers
And run rampant through a life

Odd that Horatio should quibble
With Marcellus and Barnardo about the time. What does it matter what definition
of “long” they use? How much longer could Marcellus and Barnardo mean?
And why should it matter that Horatio felt the time to be shorter?
Is this just a quick reminder that Marcellus and Barnardo saw the ghost before and Horatio only this once?
It feels like a power struggle
For a point of view.