R.K. Muse: Witsend's Poet Laureate*

The following sonnet, a parody of the opening scene of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, was discovered descending the front steps of the Witsend Courthouse, each one of the fourteen steps tagged with a line from the poem while the title rested on the doorstep, serving as a doormat:

Corporate Hill: An Obituary

Two households, both alike in maladies
(In fair D.C., where we expose our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where Civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
An illegitimate child was conceived:
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Tyranny behind veiled Democracy.

The fearful passage of sinister Acts
Resurrecting Crusades twice removed-
Spinning webs of mass deception sans facts,
While claiming thee Almighty hath approved.

The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
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*R.K. Muse is Witsend's first and only (de facto) Poet Laureate, since no other poet has stepped forward to make a claim on the literary title. Although no verification of R.K. Muse's existence has been verified through the Bureaucratic Regime, he has left a trail of poems in his mysterious wake. The poems have appeared all over Witsend, usually scribed in what appears to be a red, water-soluble paint. The CSI of Witsend has tested the paint, and their results contend the red dye is a mixture of animals' blood, which helps support the popular theory among Witsendians that his initials stand for "Road Kill" and his muse is inspired by the unsuspecting victims whose souls he releases during the night.