15ABANDONED HAMLET

My nature adores a vacuum

that’s why the skull is my best friend.

She asked, how many deaths to slake

this pain? Painstakingly, I tallied up

the answer: her father’s first, then hers

by water. The king, my uncle, and

the queen, my mother. Then I cleaned out

the rest of the nest. I was always

destined for the Russian ending, but

what happens now the play

is over? No sound, and none to hear,

the theatre’s black and I

am every character —

every, every character.