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Blue Marble Review

Literary Journal for Young Writers

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How We Talk About Juliet

By Amanda Lee

i.

Botanically: as the blushing rose named

for her, vivisected into light-shy

petals.             On the flower

-laced continuum of taxonomy

we scatter her somewhere between

inanimate object and heroine.

 

ii.

Linguistically: we assign her the word

“devoted” and move on to Romeo.

But shouldn’t we stop and debate if she, too,

can be strong? Debate if women can be

workers

breadwinners?

Only 2 women debate in parliament.

 

iii.

Mathematically: equate her relationships. Love

is the product of physical beauty. Is this

why my friends starve themselves?

Strawberry juice

is the colour of botched

skin after plastic surgery, blood

seeping through Botoxed smiles.

 

iv.

Artistically: paint her pale skinned, baby-

curled, trailing damask. We hand her

a button

for modesty. Then criticize her

for her short skirts, hot pink

binders and crop tops.

 

v.

Astronomically: hold our hands against the same

constellations            Juliet

looked up to when Romeo left her     lost

and alone. We watch the moon wax and

wane, looking for a line of best fit

through this

star-crossed path.

 

 

Amanda Lee Siu Ching is from Singapore. Amanda is a student at Raffles Girls’ School (Secondary) and a Creative Arts Programme mentee. Her work has been recognised by the Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Awards and appeared in TeenInk.

Filed Under: Poetry Tagged With: February 2018: Ten Poems

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