(x = space)

x

x

Signed, Shakespeare

x

It never happened

Maybe for some real estate

Or for companion ownership

In buildings,

In a theatre

x

The printing press came ‘round

At last

And with it the first suits

For plagiarizing

But his world

Her world

Dealt in manuscripts

Of which we don’t have any

x

For who would want them

When the players

And producers

Are all done with them

And we’ve moved on

In the production season?

x

So who was he

Or she?

Shakespeare was

As in existence

And we fight over that

x

What’s in an origin?

Ask mothers: they can

Tell you

In love and in labor,

There is a person

x

We have the plays as progeny

Thirty-eight or thirty-nine

And all the poetry

x

Was the name a pun—with a

Shaky hand, a quill (a spear) to write?

x

Maybe it’s to say

I do not care;

How much do you?

I think he was

And is through text

And liveliest

Performances,

Recitations,

Reservations,

Happy box offices

And officers

Plus venues and listeners

For poetry

x

Signed, Shakespeare

Has not happened for us

Yet or will

(or Will)

But when the flag is flying

And the gun has sounded,

We go in

x

Maybe there will be oranges

To eat

Because they do not rhyme

x

C L Couch

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Photo by Mathew MacQuarrie on Unsplash

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