The Second Idea (poem)
The Second Idea
“Hobbes,” she said.
That’s the thing, right? Like, the three main characters…
Yeah, I get it, her partner says, ticking off fingers
Nasty. Brutish. Short.
They made their bargain with the Duke
But…what’re we gonna call him…the older brother?
So the younger brother was pretending to be him
But then, because he’s dumb
Because they’re all dumb…oh, let’s call that one Gamaliel
So the younger brother is married already, and he’s supposed
to pretend he’s…okay, Geoffrey…
pretend he’s Geoffrey. Because Geoffrey is…um…
Disfigured, her partner says
But for some idiot reason we have to think of.
But, she says, is this gonna get sort of, you know, sensitive…?
Well, we just have to make it funny.
So they screw it up. They get thrown out of the Duke’s house
Castle.
Whatever.
And then the daughter wants her puny boyfriend
No, we have to say first, the Duke is throwing a tournament
Throwing? Hosting? Staging?
We don’t care right now. To marry off his daughter to the winner.
But the guys, thinking they’ll pay him back for insulting them
are gonna have Geoffrey enter as the mysterious Prince of…
I don’t know, what would sound like a dumb guy’s inspiration?
We’ll come up with it
But the boyfriend is entering too, with the same scheme
So they have be from the same country
…so they get seated together at the banquet
So each one of them tries to fake the language
(…totally stolen routine)
Denmark
Chum
(2017, Stephanie Foster)