Shakespeare and the Blues

Shakespeare understood the blues.

He knew parting was such sweet sorrow.

Mr. Shakespeare was the main MC

Of the Elizabethan scene and so I figure

To be or not to be (similar to how you be?)

Be as timeless as hell and as universal

Since such questions never go out of style.

I only wish Othello had sussed out Iago

And taken Iago down to the crossroads

And asked Iago the devil’s true-true name.

Juliet is like Lady Gaga (in my HBO rewrite)

And Romeo lives in Harlem with his moms —

Though that’s only his nom-de-plume.

He wants to be the first rapper with a PhD.

And Robert Burns smiles to keep from crying

And when he penned the best-made plans

Of mice and men (not rats) often go astray

What he really meant was shit happens.

Dead Old White Men they knew the blues

Though they didn’t always know what

They knew okay maybe not even in 1619

By which time Shakespeare was Auld Lang

Syne and Burns was not yet in this world

But the blues isn’t stuck on color or CP time.