The first was Romeo and Juliet:
We read aloud and choked on every line.
We spat and butchered all the players said,
till one jock nailed it. Miller (friend of mine)
began insisting bravely that he take
the lead in reading in Mercutio’s voice.
Cold Mrs. Day could not hide warmest praise
as line by line he turned what had been noise
to something rising steadily; it peaked
when from my chair I heard a dying friend,
my ears unstopped, I heard the players speak,
and felt five hundred years old there and then,
saw boys, like us, arguing for laughs and time,
like us, shoving for power and scratched and dying.
Photo by veeterzy on Unsplash
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