by Catherine Payne

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

How is it possible that your tragedies 

hold truths that haunt us today?

I wish that the youth no longer inherited

a world fraught with feuds and wars.

Whenever my classes study your tragedies,

one pupil inevitably asks, 

“Will Shakespeare help us in real life?”

How can I tell my students —

full of wild dreams — 

that love doesn’t always win?

When I reply that your tragedies

still illuminate reality,

my middle-aged heart contracts

as if it were a dying star.

I worry that my students’ hopes will slip away

like sonnets no one reads.

I can only pray that one day 

your words no longer resonate.