Front Row

In London for a friend’s book launch

at Somerset House on the Strand,

I pack my days

and nights with activity –

lunch with a former roommate

at her Fleet Street club,

a Vivaldi performance

at St.-Martin-in-the-Fields.

But it’s the Shakespeare matinee

at the Theatre Royal Haymarket,

where I can touch the stage floor

without leaving my seat,

that would have most impressed

16-year-old-me. Back then,

I applauded Richard III and

other plays written by the bard,

staged by itinerant thespians

during assemblies at our rural school,

never imagining that one day

sexagenarian-me would behold

Much Ado About Nothing in London,

where this diverting comedy,

performed by celebrated actors, would

become much ado about something else.