Nashville Shakespeare

From his tongue he spoke like Waylon
The bard of the Cumberland River
His journey from Macbeth to the Grand Ole Opry
In the Ryman he battered us with sonnets. A long dream.

In the dead of night 
He wore the cloak of tragedy
While the Honky Tonk boys erupted in laughter
As he tripped over the cowboy boots scooting on the dancefloor.

Then all the romances in the world,
Within every glittering star in the sky
Violated the Romeo and Juliet pact.
And watched him cough through his fumes of sighs.

All the women he used to fancy
Are chasing the broncos at the rodeo.
Everyone is drunk on whiskey and moonshine
Less on wine and Absinthe with wormwood.

In the mirrors he believed to see the future.
With a skull in his hand feeling axiomatic
An original intellectual filled up with the Viper’s spit.
Surrounded by tornados and outlaws in a sun wrought sky.

There is a banging, clash against the church glass windows
The art painted by the halos of exotic angels
The cholera will hit the streets and the cowardly all say goodnight.
In the buzzing city, the homeless and the golden dances become one.

The light returns in a gleam as the alert hits Broadway
The pounding of hail and glass molding hits like hammers
Playwrights always preferred a bubonic ending.
The Kings were noble and didn’t know the calls to country animals.

Bio: David L O’Nan (he/him) is the founder of Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Art, A writer, editor for nearly 20 years.  He has pieces found in Icefloe Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, Ghost City Review, Royal Rose Magazine, Rhythm & Bones Press Lit, Cajun Mutt Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Nymphs Publishing, Spillwords among others.  His website for publishing older work & others work is found at www.feversofthemind.com   He is from the Midwest . Kentucky/Indiana area.