John Calvin Hughes

BRAUTIGAN IN ELSINORE


There are windows that want to fly
with rose colored clouds
in a sky that is Hamlet
staring into the drowned
eyes of Ophelia.
From the castle walls
cormorants watch him
in the dank courtyard,
the wet flagstones shine
like parrots frozen
in black ice.
He thinks something
profound is gained
by considering Peter
Lorre, but it is
a telling, gentle thing.
Silver knives, tasteless
poison, the quotidian
quality of murder.
Across the room
Claudius look up
from his grapefruit
and fixes him with a
meaningful stare.

John Calvin Hughes has published poems, stories, and criticism in numerous magazines and journals and is the author of The Novels and Short Stories of Frederick Barthelme, a critical study from the Edwin Mellen Press.