I was warned of jealousy:

It is the green-eyed monster

Which doth mock the meat it feeds on!

We are moulded by different hands

Then can we really live in harmony?

For we each seek sanctuary amongst our own kind,

Me with mine and you with yours;

And in seeking sanctuary

Have you crossed the line?

I did dote, but I also did doubt;

I did strongly love, but I also did strongly suspect!

The spark of love and the spark of jealousy;

It is my love that keeps mine eyes awake;

I tried to question you

Without really questioning you,

But you seemed to let it pass

By letting it slide through conversations

And this only furthers

The questions in my mind;

Have I loved too wisely, or too well?

Once the spark is lit,

Is it in fair order to put out the Light?

And in this darkness,

To sleep and put myself to sleep?

I see you lying besides me,

But Jealousy too is my bedfellow;

As you lie, I lie awake with this disease

A jealousy so strong that judgement cannot cure,

Like a poisonous mineral , gnaw my inwards;

And nothing can or shall content my soul,

For this sorrow’s heavenly,

It strikes where it doth love;

And so the pangs of jealousy

Transform themselves into a stab

For love, thou know’st, is full of jealousy.

I believed in ideals of freedom and of love,

But I seemed to fail in both;

The world did question me

And I did question the world

But jealous souls will not be answered so;

They are not ever jealous for the cause,

But jealous for they are jealous: ’tis a monster

Begot upon itself, born on itself,

The Bard did rightly say;

And to those who hear my tale

You too have been warned!

[The above is one out of a five part re-imagination of Shakespeare’s Othello, for ‘Shakespeare and the World’ course at the YIF. Ideas that Shakespeare’s characters embodied still live on. We put ourselves in Othello’s shoes and explored themes of difference, desire and jealousy. The italicized words are borrowed from Shakespeare.]