Jake's Flea Market

one o’clock   the platform

one o’clock   the plain the platform overlooked

one o’clock   the plain   the stage

one o’clock   the platform   the benches
from where the audience watched

one o’clock   the audience
marcellus     bernardo     i     watched

watched for fortinbras

watched for norway

watched for the hour that contained
norway to invade
the hour that held denmark   watched
for time to invade itself

it was a cold hour  

christmas   with winter in its breath   exhaled
slow   calm   gentle   tried
to blow a leaf across the plain and failed     

blew the king’s armour on stage

the king who was two months a homeless breath

we knew the breath by the armour it wore     
worn against norway 

the cock crowed
the breath returned to the dirt