Behind Shakespeare

Westminster Abbey is crowded today –

Our progress through chapels and shrines is slow.

Smooth stones beneath our feet gravely say

The names of notables buried below.

To Poets’ Corner we shuffle in at last

Where Chaucer lies encircled by the blessed.

We pause to stare at William Shakespeare’s bust

(His bones in Stratford-upon-Avon rest).

We drift away to cloister’s small cafe.

I ask directions to the bathroom. “Go

Behind Shakespeare, there's a door, this way.

Behind Shakespeare — where poets are, you know.”

No matter what some modern bards might tell,

It’s always worth it — know your Shakespeare well.

First published in Every Day Poets in 2012.

Image by William Blake - internet, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27541163