Shakespeare In The Park Poem by Doug Lane

At the back of the line
For Lear
at the Delacorte

we lucked into
free tickets
left vacant
by the deaf.

Signers intervened
between us
and the stage,
so we got
a double layer
of The Bard
....spoken....and signed.

We didn't know signing,
but were illuminated
by what was handed to us
anyway.
We heard the words
and saw the hands
that meant
the words.

Had we been really smart
we would have emerged
fluent
in Elizabethan sign language.

Instead,
we left
with our brains
and hands
inexpressibly stimulated
by signs and wonders
from a visit
to a small, mute,
startlingly fluent,
planet.

Who knew
Lear without words
could be
so.....
musical?
Oh brave new,
at least,
to us,
world!