on a folio back he’d have to get Ben Johnson
or Chris Marlowe to vouch they’d read his play
then swear they “couldn’t put it down”
or some such nonsensical lie,
on top of that the folio would have to be
distributed to people who could read the blurb
let alone the manuscript inside the cover.
We’re talkin’ no more than a couple dozen
aristocrats and several score more clergy.
Nope, he’ have to bank on a bunch of abridged
live re-enactments by travelling troupes
to draw the crowds to The Globe.

Not many men or women could imagine
what a young guy with a falsetto would
sound like emoting, “Romeo O, Romeo,
wherefore art thou?” before getting pelted
in the face with a rotten cabbage
from a sneering nobleman or groundling.

Besides, the folio alone would cost
the price of a Broadway orchestra seat today,
so only about 37 aristocrats and merchants
in the whole kingdom could afford one.

Gene Goldfarb is a writer and poet living on Long Island in New York. Besides writing, his passions are traveling, movies, and reading. His poetry has appeared in Black Fox, SLANT, COG, Green Briar, Quiddity and elsewhere.