Long Poems on William Shakespeare

Luvs, Darlings, Sweeties,
thespians, lesbians, and has-beens,
Tarts, Farts, and Passionate Hearts,
Dinner Suits, Boots, Old Coots,
Frumps, Humps, Those down in the dumps,
Seers, Queers, Sweet Old Dears,
Purists, Jurists, American Tourists,
Lords, Ladies, Gentlemen, Children,
all other members of the human race and Drama critics,

"What the Hell do you think you are doing?"

Sitting there night after night, paying inflated prices
to watch busty middle aged women and brainless
young men prance around in tights performing. ...

You must know there are times
I will not choose you over the poem;
nor your email, text or pouting silence
over the verse;

Bulging zippers will not sway me
nor swollen suitcases by the entrance.
If you want to be first in someone’s life
you must know, it can never be mine.

I'll never be the faithful wife
skinning vegetables at the sink;
a gimlet eye’d grandmother supervising,
starched apron and recipe splayed
submissively across the counter -
contents spooned carefully;
the roast, flayed,...