J. Zimmerman

Elsinore 1:2

Theirs is an affair of appetite, amazed by each other's bodies, bending into each other's breath, begging for comfort and consent.

winter solstice / the psychopath's amygdala / completely unlit

Within, they drink each other's dreams, the funeral almost forgotten, while outside they deliver their fair and seeming-dutiful faces.

the tallest iceman / leveraging on the backs / of voters

Gentle gladness is their plaything masking their hardened hearts, their over -immediate claim of kingdom, leaving the land's heir to his library. A month of in-name mourning has loosened memory's frail hands and led them to marriage.

candelabra light / the superficial charm / of the sociopath

Their natures pardon their nights. Though they are pestered by secrecy, petitioned by obligations, they have surrendered to the trap of the throne. Their thoughts hang behind their tongues, vulgar as violence. They watch for weakness, these so-far survivors of their wedding, warlike against their own.

uncle and mother / burying the opposition / snowflake by snowflake

Note: Many words in the prose are selected from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2.