DRAMATIC Monologue Poem: Prayer of Queen Gertrude, by G.R. Kramer

An imagined missing soliloquy from Act III of Hamlet.

I crave return to the earth.
I who bore that boy
now must abide his destruction.

Whose image is it in this dark mirror
shadowed, candle lit, framed by white roses?
A lone woman, but not one waiting
for a sign from above,
from You,
the One who makes no signs.

For You
I have no explanations,
nor for my husband,
nor for my son,
though You and I both see him
in the doorway.

I think we see him the same way,
his mind wobbling, his dagger golden red
looking for a place to plunge,
as I hear a storm of empty thunder rising outside, spreading
to my bedchamber. Like a heavy oak with clumsy limbs,
a fool falls from behind a curtain, run through by fear.

The end would now be so different
if either one of us cared more about it.
I am a mother, but not
like You are a Father.
The world is Your body, but for all the world’s noise
I have found You mute.
My body has been my voice,
You have seen to that,
and my voice falls silent by my choice.

I have shame. You,
the Playwright of all this,
You have just Your contempt
for all of us, giving us
only loss
to show Your power.

You will never be the light I call out to,
but only the blackness beyond.
I dismiss you,
as I will be dismissed.