[In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon, king of the fairies, plays a trick on Titania, his queen: he plies his sleeping consort with a potion that induces love at first sight. Meanwhile, Oberon’s servant-sprite Puck has mischievously turned the head of a local workman into that of an ass. Of course, it is this monstrosity that Titania sees upon waking….]
Titania
It’s in the script: you’ll never get to choose
A paramour from your exclusive class.
So ask yourself, what have you got to lose?
There’s something visceral about an ass.
Don’t judge my conversation by the fuzz:
You’ll find my bray as buoyant as my bite,
Or any other thing my muzzle does
Those times you need an animal at night.
You want to take my costume off? Just pull.
No hairless fairy prince inside, but if
You want a ride, I’m fully functional:
This ass head’s not the only thing that’s stiff.
You’ll be my Queen, and I’ll be on my knees.
Just one request: no stage directions, please.
| Copyright © 2023 by Eric Meub Eric Meub is a California poet & architect. |
I think this superficially pornographic, but substantially clean, clinical, and psychologically true sonnet deserves a prize!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Eric, for re-enlivening Shakespeare’s plot and scene, in your ever incisive, it-looks-so-easy (-but-it-isn’t) way with meter and rhyme.
Looking for a patron of the arts with big bucks to launch the Titania Prize!
Thank you Morris! If you could be the judge, I'd launch the prize myself!
ReplyDelete