Dull Revenge Poem by Laurence Overmire

Shakespeare must have seen it
400 years ago
How everything seems trivial at a certain
Point in time
Hamlet looking back, Polonius tombed,
From a hill of Fortinbras’d fortune
We too, with our dollars, accounts and bills
All these things to do
To stop ourselves from seeing
Death
Come to the doorstep, knocking with a
Cold hand
Those who don’t even know us
Convinced that we must die
I don’t know why
We need to feel superior
That God is on OUR side
But both sides are wrong somehow
Killing themselves
For no apparent
Reason, godlike gift permit
To fust in us unused
From this time forth, yea
All these thoughts, our weaker minds
Make bloody
Something or profoundly nothing worth
On these of all occasions
Sad history
Do indeed inform against us.


(Previously published in The Scrivener's Pen, Vol 3, Issue 3,2003; CER*BER*US, Apr 2003, #49)