ISSUE 22
February 2003

Elizabeth Samet

 

Elizabeth Samet lives in New York, where she teaches literature to soon-to-be lieutenants at the United States Military Academy. Recent poetry has appeared in Connecticut Review and The Larcom Review.
Horatio's Heart    Click to hear in real audio


Had Hamlet ever told him anything,
delivered on his northwest promising:

O I could tell you, could-could-tell you ...

A ghosting father's verbal tic, this passing
over immanence unfolding in a
word (no matter), Horatio might well
have set his cause aright.
                                       But as it fell out
he mouthed a verse so blank no one could hear,
drenched in fusillade and sennet.
                                                   Nor could he
elide the breach between the being
and the seeming soldier's funeral-a
put-on, passing mute. Promising to speak
the how of things unnatural, Horatio
no doubt misprized the passing soul.

 

 

Elizabeth D. Samet: Poetry
Copyright � 2003 The Cortland Review Issue 22The Cortland Review