Friday, December 16, 2022

Here May You See the Tyrant - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com


 

Here May You See the Tyrant

 

And live to be the show and gaze o’ th’ time.
We’ll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit
“Here may you see the tyrant.”

 

-Macbeth V.viii.28-31

 

Once upon a time he strutted across the stage

Peering into a cauldron presented to him

And stirring it about for a viler taste

Soul-sickness for sale from a poisoned chalice

 

But now he lurks in his dime-store Dunsinane

Conjuring magic baubles that do not exist

Comic-book ikons of himself for sale

To sucker the intellectually innocent

 

He cannot admit that his life was a lie

A non-fungible token to its end

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