RJ

The story is as old as Babylon Star-crossed lovers are not new Is it a love story or a tragedy Perhaps I can change your view Dante, the Divine Comedy Legend He gave us the names That became Montague and Capulet Of Romeo and Juliet fame They were sides of a political argument That tore medieval Italy apart Still feuding after hundreds of years And that’s where the story starts Prince Escalus, Verona’s ruler Had decreed the feuding progeny Desist from brawling in the streets Or live their lives in other territory Romeo, a teenage Montague Of old family ties and traditions Juliet was from the house Capulet They were Montague’s opposition Rosaline had rejected Romeo As teenagers sometimes do He was heartbroken,,, he thought And boredom and friendship carried him to... Juliet... She and he were both struck As the rest of the room swirled They seemed to be alone The only bodies in the world. They part before she knows his name But knowing it means naught She knows she will love him forever However much their families fought Whispered words in the night They professed undying affection With little thought for consequences Or their families’ rejection Juliet’s nurse sees how the land lies And tells it all to Friar Lawrence Between them they hatch a scheme To defeat the families’ abhorrence A nighttime wedding in the friar’s room The friar wanted to stop the strife He never could have imagined That his scheming would cost life A night of bliss, and Romeo departs But the feud follows him to the street Minutes later Mercutio lay dead And Juliet’s kin lies at Romeo’s feet Banishment is the punishment earned And Romeo is so condemned He must leave fair Verona forever And never see Juliet again Another scheme was concocted By the Friar and the nurse Juliet will take a sleeping draft To cheat a living curse She’ll sink into a stillness As cold as winter’s close, While all Verona mourns her Not knowing it’s a ruse. We must tell Romeo the subterfuge That allows Juliet to appear deceased But somehow it doesn’t reach him And he returns to Verona for his release. He takes his own prepared draft And promptly gives up his life Only for Juliet to rise from the stone And forlorn, takes her own with his knife. And so the feud was forgotten To no-one’s satisfaction At the cost of two star-crossed lovers But was there another course of action? Hundreds of songs have been written About the staggering tragedy But I ask myself sometimes Did it have to be? Now there is another path That could have been traversed Romeo gets the correct info And their love isn’t cursed Dire Straits had Romeo get the message They reconciled and departed the city But Juliet dumped him later And it all seemed a bit of a pity Romeo didn’t move on as she did He didn’t see it as a whim One line burned in his brain “I used to have a scene with him” And I heard another story Where they fled from fair Verona From there to Venice and beyond Where they travelled the Silk Road The Silk Road can make you rich And Rohan and Julian didn’t fail Two merchants doing deals Following Marco Polo’s trail They lived into their seventies Still bound together by devotion No hint of tragedy touched them Joy their only emotion