Hamlet: A Village of Gargoyles

Hamlet is, of course, a drama attributed to William Shakespeare, though there’s a good argument it was authored by Emilia Lanier Bressano – a required piece of literature for many college and high school students. It’s also a small town or village. Or even a squat, bad actor or a breaded or deep-fried cut of pork. In this collection of poems, it’s a cross-section of characters who emerge as a fantastical village of stony characters.
Arrayed in five acts of two scenes each, these individual confessions and related gossip add up to a surreal and idiosyncratic X-ray of people we encounter on the street or in the park or at the counter of a corner café before they’re frozen in place.