When Juliet—all of red delicious
hair and heart-shaped body—says
I love you, the telephone rings
          and it's God calling to say
this is a miracle He did not create.

Not only has she stepped into the garden
but she’s repaving its paths.
No more will women wander near
the apple tree, but over to the figs
where every mouthful is another

lover who will hear I love you
and not the silence of stars,
a milk-drained night where branches
crack in the frost and a dove
gives away its only egg.

When Juliet—mermaid-dress-wearing
Juliet—gives her voice to a man, all the sailors
ask her to sing to them. But she is taken
like the song heard on foggy eves.
She calls for the waves to quiet so she can say it

again in a whisper. When Juliet finally says
I love you to the man who has waited for years
beside her, the bells ring in the churches
and Mary appears holding a red-ripe

heart in her porcelain hands.

Kelli Russell Agodon is the author of two poetry collections, Small Knots and Geography, winner of the 2003 Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. She was born and raised in Seattle and educated at the University of Washington and Pacific Lutheran University. Currently, she is editing the Poetry Broadside Series: The Making of Peace.
Website: www.agodon.com
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