Love in the Time of Elsinore; A Ghazal
Gabrielle Cole
Gabrielle Cole is a student and writer studying English literature at McGill University. She enjoys books about female ennui, movies about anything, and iced caramel macchiatos. You can find her on Twitter @lovelieswaiting, or at gabriellecole.carrd.co.
Somewhere there exists a meaningful silence.
These castle walls hold a fateful silence.
Eyes meet across the great hall;
there is beauty in hopeful silence.
Mouths full of sweet, sweet breath;
a confession of love, then: wistful silence.
A parting kiss on the forehead and
with it, a sorrowful silence.
The water lies as still as a body;
plucked flowers float in careful silence.
Elsewhere—the air is thick with futile vengeance;
shrouded thorns bristle in resentful silence.
Understanding that all that lives must die;
daggers are coated with sinful silence.
O dear Ophelia, we’ve been dead since we woke up,
God be wi’ you—the rest is silence.
Photograph by Naihan Nath.