Romeo and Julieta by Lisa Weber

I was never invited into your family home.
Never shook your father’s hand, never embraced your mother.
They would have hung you with a rope as thick as my black hair
if they knew you spoke to them with the same mouth
that touched the forbidden lips of a brown-skinned girl.
I imagined we were Romeo and Julieta,
that you would deny thy father and refuse thy name,
swear your love to me and your family be damned.
But our young romance could not serve as martyr
for color blind, star-crossed lovers.
Instead of denying your father, you denied me.
Instead of refusing your name, you refused me.
Heartache—like love—comes in many shades.

Lisa L. Weber’s words have been published in Anti-Heroin Chic, Barren Magazine, Bone & Ink Press, Feminine Collective, Mojave Heart Review, and others. Follow her on Twitter @LisaLermaWeber

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