Ancient Hamlet Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

Ancient Hamlet

Houses around me are emptying, the old reaching
the age of dying, are passing away. A timeworn man
went missing on Monday he was found miles away
by the police who drove him back home, he had tried
to flee didn’t know where and he had no money.
Behind locked doors in darkened rooms he tries to
stave off the preordained. The sunlight, unbearable
reminds him of future suns he will not live to see, or
for that matter, the rain that falls. When a car stops he
shakes with fear, is it a hearse coming for him? Voices
of happy children are like derision of his elderliness.
He longs for peace but fear death’s cruel endlessness.