The half moon is east of Jove, a planet dot
above our act that shines the recent past
of light our star has sent as fast as thought
across vast space and back, the time our cast
will play these scenes and be, in all these words,
yet older still, four hundred years and time,
when light left the Pleiades and folk first heard
the joy, the dirge of Cleopatra’s rhyme,
Antony’s fall, and all is more than light
that constant one dimension-Yes-we breathe
together, move limbs and stride, move lips, our guide
begins in text and grows, this Shakespeare seed
become a life in us, ephemeral show
of light and time, and we the folio.

[*or "On realizing that our Shakespeare in the Park production
of Antony and Cleopatra takes ninety-seven minutes, which is
the same amount of time light takes to travel from the sun to
Jupiter and reflect back to Earth."]