What Do We Know About Shakespeare?

A flash essay by Charles Bane Jr.

I once sat beside a dinner guest, an attorney, who, hearing that I was a poet, spent the evening explaining carefully why Shakespeare was a lawyer, who happened to write plays and sonnets.

This is a tribute to Shakespeare, who inhabited every soul's shoes, but it also underlines the profound difference between our times and the Bard's, when everyone had a general knowledge of law — for their safety's sake — and it further adds to our understanding that Shakespeare — very unlike most his fellow actors — and unlike poets even today, was a businessman determined to prosper, even while giving reign to his genius.

The Reflecting Pond

Ten years ago
I tattooed a symbolic charm
of happiness on my ankle;
now its detail
nestles within skin’s movement

This morning I turned the music up
and started screening my calls; precise
unbearable voices couldn’t reach me

One Night in the Garden District

I slept in your bed last night.
Searched for coffee
and an accompanying mug
in your kitchen this morning.

The Canadian Home

No noise, no traffic, no sirens
Only the crackling of the fires.

The solar lights brighten up the yard
Living up here is not that hard

Our furry kids run wild and free
The trees have grown two feet or three

Northern lights occasionally come
The speckled fawns will follow their mom