#211: Ode To Juliet’s Nurse

Juliet’s age-knowing,
wormwood on dug-leaving,
dirty-joke telling,
thou wilt fall backward,
when thou comest to age,
wilt thou not, Jule-talking,
fan-waving,
fan’s the fairer face-waving,
Mercrutio, scurvy-knaving,
saucy merchant-screaming,
I’ll take him down-threatening,
match-making,
Juliet-teasing,
oh, my aching bones-complaining,
where is your mother-asking,
wedding-arranging,
Romeo and Juliet co-conspiring,
Romeo shaming,
on Friar Lawrence-crushing,
he’s dead, he’s dead,
alack the day-sobbing,
heart-throbbing,
Tybalt’s dead body-mourning,
Capulet-fighting,
Juliet-betraying, no longer
in confidence and craving,
and on wedding-to-Paris-day morning,
Juliet’s sleeping body-discovering,
she’s dead, she’s dead-mistaking,
alack the day again sobbing,
and then out and never again
to be seen-leaving, a sail, a sail
into the dark and behind the
curtain and into the green
room, where Juliet’s nurse
transforms and becomes again,
my esteemed colleague, my friend.