giulietta

By Joseph Pogson

tourists
touch the breasts of Juliet
crowded around her golden torso
hands cupped
around bronze
they file in I file in
iPhones aloft
praising the girl
in the balcony above
hands on her chin
they file in
3000 euros
for defacing the walls
3000 euros a minute
for the city council

I stand in
the hollow
of a doorway
watching
the luck seep
from her golden breasts
the tops of the old stone wall
are like petals from a lily flower
and the vines like
green tears
hanging above
a thousand Romeos
packed like sardines
in the courtyard

J