by Kevin T McEneaney
On that solemn Ash Wednesday
when we recall we all are but dust,
Hamlet meditated on the death of his father,
confronting the king who poisoned his father,
then married his deluded mother—
as Herod Antipas once did centuries ago—
when he also committed fratricide.
–
Ophelia committed suicide the next day
which was Valentine’s Day
because she thought she may be
pregnant with Hamlet’s child
which she reveals by reciting a poem
about such an awkward situation;
how could she bear a child out of wedlock,
especially when she witnessed Hamlet
kill her father by stabbing him repeatedly
with the almighty phallic sword,
yet Hamlet did not know Ophelia might be pregnant
when he hurled the Valentine engagement love-locket
he had purchased at the breast of Ophelia,
whom he thought had betrayed him,
by collaborating with her father Polonius
who was working for the usurper.
–
Ophelia regretted surrendering
her virginity to Prince Hamlet—
just like Queen Elizabeth with Essex
when she was a young, nubile teenager.
–
Hamlet knew that playing the role
of John the Baptist numbered his days;
with maudlin self-pity he was also mourning
for the brevity of his life while he was ready
to surrender his life in the name of dignity,
just like John the Baptist and Yeshua
who quaffed at least a gallon
of watered wine each day, acquiring
the Greek nickname Christos
as the new, rabbinical Dionysos,
who freely forgave sins of the downtrodden
in the name of the father of Creation,
declaring that in the kingdom of the Father
the first will be the last!
