Hamlet on Jeopardy

ULF KIRCHDORFER

May 12, 2020

To click or not to click
to give the answer
is of prominent concern
in this studio of mostly
older viewers. They know
all too well how your life
can change in an instant,
whether they have understood
or misunderstood Frost’s
much worn poem.

Hamlet winces at Alex Trebek’s
polite-assertive “Pick a category.”
The choice offers “Words without
Vowels” and “Dead Ends,”
so even Hamlet lets out a chuckle.
He knows words without vowels,
has pondered them. stringing “h’s”
together, h h h h h h, in imitation
of what he fears dying unable to
breathe feels like, on his visit to America.

ULF KIRCHDORFER is a poet and photographer looking forward to moving back to Texas. Current projects in production are a book of bird photographs, with poetry written by a co-author, and a poetry book with the working title of “Hamlet Gets a Puppy.” Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Ulf enjoyed swimming four times a week.