Shakespeare's Sister in a Country Graveyard


If Shakespeare's sister had that genius
so richly flowing from her brother's pen,
yet sure her glory would be lost to us,
her world's a stage, the players only men.

For somewhere there's an unknown woman who
could thrill the air with words - make them reveal
the beauty of the heart - could make it true
that drama's tragedy and joy are real...

She is the woman whose most futile call
was shouted from each other headstone when
the poet in the Churchyard heard just men
who weren't but could be heros. Imagine -
how melancholy that they're lost! But then
their gravemates were not elegized at all.

Apologies to Virginia Woolf and Thomas Gray