SELFIE

SELFIE

paint a portrait
of all the people
in the head
of William Shakespeare

give us a snapshot
of that essential process
that rendered
an experience
valid
for all time
(or so
his most enthusiastic
proponents will
claim for the Bard
of Stratford
(controversies of authorship
here for convenience
laid to one side)

wonder if anything
in there, in that
supreme consciousness,
ever
felt radically wrong,
wholly inside out

wishing
it had more time, could
work faster, be
forever more settled

despite the egregious connotations and
political considerations
of the settle verb

Lancaster York,
Cavalier
Roundhead, Yankee
Confederate

blue state
red state

heard some American historian
claim them
the same civil war

here
tethered to the Pole
whether North
or South
it be we
find absolute positionings

around things
secretly hidden or
transcribed with
scarce fidelity

those figures we
did talk about
characters of standing
some of
such construction, resonance, depth, power and
(sometimes)
majesty

wandering from
stage to stage
theatre to theatre

like some
royal procession, carnival
event