Fragment From the Diary of an Anonymous Bard (Poem)

This is another of my early experimental poems about women, both real and imagined.

Fragment From the Diary of an Anonymous Bard

(juliet)

Of Juliet
once Shakespeare told

She was a woman on her hidden side
daughter to Capulet
a child whom Nurse gave lie

From time to time
untender swords the silence
in her room would break

Rude-fevered hands upheld Verona's grudge
half-shadows side by side struck oaths
that tempered dizzy tongues

Two houses
one against the other stood

With Juliet
young Paris sought a noble match

But Venus courted deeper looks
conjured of fire, quickly borne

Romeo, and a Montague he was
his name an enemy she might refuse

Such vows as lovers make
they made

and sudden haste

Night played their cunning game

Raven on dove
did leave its mark

and on her hand
a spot of blood

Ungently Tybalt
to their bed did come

and noble earl
his way to take

A friar in a kind of hope
made act of death:
in sleep Juliet would bargain

But intent
misfortune set no store

Romeo on Paris's shield did draw
and his end with poison steal

In faith
Juliet pale by her sun
would lie

Copyright Maureen E. Doallas. All Rights Reserved.