my tongue has been tied into patterns
since the first cut of the sword into my hair and skin;
my mother’s locks became string patterns in my fingers,
and i am not afraid of the monster under my bed.
i turn my tapestries into holes in trees,
fashion my dressed into cat’s cradles –
in the bleakness of the night, i construe the constellations
until they are crowns on my darkened head
and veins in my mother’s hands.
i slumber in the hammock of a soldier,
and when the children return to my gardens,
my hair becomes a willow of rope,
“that woman,” they whisper.
“is she the last beauty i shall see?”
in the midst of winter and shadow,
i weave a nightmare from the roars and shrieks below,
and in my dream i am starlight,
a child of white sails,
and always, always brave.
i’ve sliced my hair and hands on steel and bone,
and i’ve sewn mire-haired men
out of the gums of strangers;
a fish’s onyx tail in my hair
and silver in my blood.
my tongue has been tied into patterns,
since the morning the fire and blood soaked my hands,
and still i coil a noose around my bedroom’s monster; the palace trellis.
curiosity kills the feline, but the spider-witted boy’s execution is tonight,
and every spider needs its webbing.
Marcin Ziolko, Sebastian Owsianka, and Wojtek Czerski by Krzysztof Wyzynski
modern day shakespeare adaptions that should exist
- southern gothic macbeth. the bloody, brutal themes of the play in the suffocating atmosphere of the genre. the imagery of lady macbeth’s hands dripping with blood! the witches! macbeth’s madness when he believes the swamp has actually come to life to kill him! it’s like it was made for this play
- political othello. make him secretary of defense or state. imagine a house of cards like environment. addresses issues of current racism and misogyny in politics, and Iago’s jealous/obsessive love for Othello with very clear homo-erotic undertones. like extremely explicit and how that translates in such a masculine setting to understand Iago’s intent.
- police hamlet. hamlet senior as the deputy in nyc. his mysterious death draws his son home from stanford/harvard/what-have-you. a modern day noir-like detective mystery. emphasis on ophelia’s depression and subsequent decent into madness by popping too many pills. the way the “respectful” upper-class tear themselves apart splashed all across the media.
- the tempest as lost.
- titus andronicus as a proper horror movie, set in the current war in the middle east.
- college midsummer nights dream. the fairyland is a popular night club. lots of dubstep music and drugs slipped in dark corners of the dance floor.