Time out of Joint

GLOBE theater, the restless crowd was
BRACEd for camp and bawd, felt time stop, alter course. Hamlet in
FILET collar saw the ghost; on his sword Horatio and Marcellus
SWORE silence. Yet secrets force their telling–his time now runs toward dreaming in the undiscovered land.

Invention

CHOIRs with orchestras and festive music are what
TUBAL-cain had in mind, inventing bronze instruments. Instead,
SCOURing earth, humankind mined, forged weapons of attack and
PARRY. Yet, on occasion, a battle horn would be used at night to sound the note of rest.


Note: Cf. Gen 4:22 “Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron”. Sometimes, scripture can be frustratingly laconic. I would love to know more about Tubal-cain.

Prufrock has Toothache

MOLAR pain. Prufrock, pondering again whether to propose, to
MARRY, but can’t think straight for pain. Will there be time enough? Or will time, a cat, slink away like coiling smoke into the night,
OPTIC trace decaying in the fading light? Pain, held at bay with
DROLL musings, unspoken to his peers. Pain, and droll, and fear: does the eternal Footman snicker as he passes?


Note: some (very) slender echoes of Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Dance

LUNGE across the dance floor like an electrocuted giraffe, the room changes from

GAZER into guffawer with literal spit-takes as glasses shatter around

GAUDY dresses and tuxes and shoes. Someone––anyone––please help. I, I mean, he needs it––

BADLY.

See more at Notes by Steven.