Poem #7

 Shakespearean Plot Lies

Shakespeare knows the power of a lie

He wrote about it

Central to many of his plays

Comedy, tragedy, or history

It repeats itself over again and again

Stitching characters together

When they decide

To deceive

 

Much ado about nothing

Is about something

Made up

To smear Hero

The Witches predict

A truth told sideways

To force Macbeth

To blow up

His contentment from becoming a hero

To committing murder

Grasping at king

Lady M helping by ushering

Him in deeper with each untruth

King Lear is happy

Surrounded by loving family

And when only one daughter

Tells the truth

Cordelia is given up

Daddy dearest then prone to wander

Not finding peace

As he’s turned out of doors

Forever on the moors

Comedy of Errors

It is a series mistaken identities

Where the truth plays hide and seek

As twins make many

Slip ups

Malvolio in Twelfth Night

Is made a fool by

Those he had

Tripped up

Titus Andronicus is revenge

Gone wild in

People that are

Messed up

Prospero abandoned

Creates havoc

Because he had

Given up

 

One could say

There are many themes

That the lie fuels

It unspools

Important events

That cause the bent

When matters turn

The house to burn

People to learn

Or not

In there somewhere

He places a moment of redemption

Where the screen is removed

People see and choose

Another way

 

They are struck

With the humanity

In the play

That is central

Causing a tear

A giggle or tickle

Or internal scream of recognition

Where the power is not the lie itself

In spinning the story

We long for connection

Correction of the course

Of the hero

To find safe journey’s end