The Definition of Crepuscular
By Justin Karcher
Maybe it’s cause I ate
a boatload of hallucinogenic tortellini
but right now
I’m imagining the Shakespeare stage
as a rocket ship
blasting off
before the father dies
before the lovers part
when we can still savor
all this labour
that goes into being affectionate
flirtatious with the forces
that unshape your world
never think
you can close yourself off
ignoring the chemistry
all around you
sparkling like wine sweat
staining the playbill
sparkling like grass blood
staining your kneecaps
if someone tickles your TNT
you better explode
you better sing songs
so, ignore your studies
because there’s an entire world to experience
isn’t that what this show’s about
that there are things you can control
and things you can’t control
that you shouldn’t try fighting
the dancing happening in your bones?
just dance, figure out the rest later
put on makeup, be a clown
grab a ladder, climb to the moon
honk its nose, make it laugh
poke at its heart, teach it how to love
anyway, today is Melissa’s birthday
she’s in the show— a milk wench
shimmying across the stage
like a voluptuous shooting star
and we’re a bunch of astronomers
at the top of the hill
turning empty wine bottles
into liver-diseasing telescopes
pretending the actors are just oversized satellites
sending out signals that only we can hear
Shakespearean Morse code making us go insane
but in a good way
because we’re all composed of tiny poems
that live in our blood
they ride around in paddleboats
looking for sunken ears that’ll listen to em
then during intermission
we start talking about our cats for whatever reason
how they always get up at like 5 AM
our cat Coco punches the blinds until we get up
apparently, all cats do this
Caitlin who’s in vet school in Philadelphia
says that cats are crepuscular animals
which means that they are primarily active during twilight
maybe dawn too
but there really isn’t a difference between the two
then I start thinking about lovers
lovers are probably crepuscular too
every character in a Shakespeare play is crepuscular
a colony of milk wenches that live on the moon
a caravan of clowns building a sun with used matchsticks
the best summer of our lives
spent sitting in the grass with the people we love
into the sunset we go, soliloquies silencing the crickets
into the sunset we go, actors turning into astronauts
into the sunset we go inside a crepuscular rocket ship
the stage is no longer a stage, but something that maps the stars
it unhinges itself from the graveyard earth
all the actors steering the astronomy
until its flying above Buffalo, above half-finished condos
all the street cats below are meowing in unison
the song is beautiful, we’re beautiful
let us always savor all this labour
that goes into being affectionate
