Experiment 3
The Record Cover. Romeo and Juliet
The Record Cover. Romeo and Juliet.
This cover makes more urgent still their loves enigma. With fond familiarity it reconstructs the props and tackle
Of their grief and so devines an inward theatre For our private play, in preparation for the probing orchestra.
Everyman's Juliet has licence here, where the magic Of a more than marvellous moon attracts a tide of unfulfilled
Desires and roses like red regrets graft their nostalgia
To that trellised balcony. How many unplayed parts Leap to the same conclusion in this scented vault. Cherishing deaths dark defeat, who formerly have fled When deaths shadow crossed them in a crowded street.
Protecting the illusion of his innocence, a man might wonder
Why he lost the midnight passion of his star-crossed youth
And setting free his favourite ghost, discover its likeness
To the honeyed girl who smiles as she passes
In the morning train. She likewise, dreams of a demon lover
With manners like a movie star who, one day
Will mount her desires and ride them panting,
Until the stars explode. Once put on, the mystery decays;
While flesh assumes the flush of supernatural ecstasy.
Worshipping the sexual grail. Yet, never having understood
The myth, cannot believe it when the love potions fail.