Today's poem is by Elizabeth Sylvia

Resurrections
        The hind that would be mated by the lion
        Must die for love — All's Well That Ends Well

What all the women in Shakespeare want
much more than to live is dying

They promise it at every turn
I understand     I too

tire at the sound of my voice
begin to stomp and boo

in the hope I will hasten off
stage left and make more room

for the whoring and fighting
and to reprieve the embarrassment

of having misjudged     thought myself
brazenly faithless     would I want

to go on looking at myself     No
It's the shame of being noticed

that gets me     though the promise
to die goes always unremarked

on     just like the love that inspires it
burns     in a little unnoticed closet

where I could hang myself
but then somehow

find myself again in the fifth act
all smiles and forgiveness

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Copyright © 2023 Elizabeth Sylvia All rights reserved
from None but Witches
3 Mile Harbor Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission