Ophelia Speaks

My father was the constant sun of mine Placed in the center of my universe, Dictating daily toils, joys, and time, My seasons, too- though seasons deeper go Than gravity due to the sun, for as The mad astronomers have said, it is The earth that tilts herself from sun When winter beckons from inside her core. O father mine, what shall I do, when you Have fled this mortal world for larger skies? Shall I continue round your empty seat In circles through the dark, still following The wanty you have set in place for me? Or might I drift clear off the map until The arrows point to signs that say “O here Be dragons?” I know not. There once was still Another orb within my universe, Though evermore blocked by my sun, as he Stood opposite my course- Lord Hamlet, I Can see thee now, in darkness you so caused By snuffing out the sun without the time For thought. Your path grows stranger, wilder still- You zig, you zag about the stars, and so You leave me dazed and warm, alone and cold With madd’ning spasms of emotion. How Could you, once great and apple of mine eyne Fall so far from the orchard tree? A mind Inclined to poetry and ‘membrances Now squeaks, unhinged from its very frame. The love you doled me still rests in my heart, For I will not regret the past like you. Yet mad thou art, for swiping round you go With daggers for my father and the souls Surrounding you. Is this the orbit thou Hast chosen: one of bloody rampage on The stars? Must all the fortunes bleed and cringe For ordering your King to die? Oh, Lord. And now must I spin down this road like you? I, too, have lost a father wrongly slain. Yet here I feel no fire in my soul To shriek and slay and burn the whole world down; Instead a cold and spreading ice has grown Inside my bosom. Not the world I wish To die, but I: I who am blund’ring through The empty space alone. Perchance, this is, Lord Hamlet, why I shall retain the spring Before it freezes o’er my heart and I Succumb to icy depths of fluid space. I will not add to suff’rings of the land, But will instead place flowers in each hand.