My Dearest Shakespeare,
Were you here?
Were you here, Shakespeare,
When you wrote “Hell is empty and all the devils are here”?
Did you see?
Did you see, Shakespeare,
The loved ones holding daggers, yet all they say is “dear”?
Did you hear?
Did you hear, Shakespeare?
The woes of the heart that echo all the way to here?
Did you feel?
Did you feel, Shakespeare?
The throb that comes from treachery? The agony that comes from fear?
Did you witness?
Did you witness, Shakespeare?
The eyes that sob tears that make trees grow near,
Only for hands to cut them, while sly voices sneer?
Shakespeare,
My Dearest Shakespeare,
If you were to know that your words would one day be as real…
As the sunlight shining when the sky is blue and clear.
Your heart would have screamed
Louder than your ears could bear to hear.
Your hands would have stopped
Writing what you truly feel.
For you’d know your words on paper
Would soon be felt, read and heard
By all hearts, eyes and ears.
Oh Shakespeare,
My Dearest Shakespeare,
How I envy you, as you left too soon and never got to hear,
How your own famous poetry of Hamlet and King Lear
Became real life plays that air a million times Over the 12 months of the year.
Last but not least,
My Dearest Shakespeare,
Check the world we live in,
I guarantee you will see,
The words that you earlier wrote,
Portrayed so perfectly, so crystal clear,
“Hell is really empty, and all the devils are here.”
Maria Wahba is an Arts student at Ain Shams University’s Girls College
Watani International
27 July 2019
