Letters to Verona by Margarita Engle in Farewell Issue, Journal of Mythic Arts, 2008 — Endicott Studio

Letters to Verona

by Margarita Engle

Old and young

from all over the world

write to Juliet

about the Romeos

in their lives.

The mail arrives

in drifts, like manna

on the sunlit desert

of a balcony.

Letters from strangers

arrive, with questions

about all matters lovelorn

and wistful.

No one seems to mind

that Juliet is both dead

and fictional.

For women in love

life on earth

is a paradise

of wishing.

About the Author:
Margarita Engle is the Cuban–American author of books about the island, most recently The Surrender Tree, Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom (Henry Holt & Co., 2008). The Poet Slave of Cuba (Henry Holt & Co., 2006) received many honors, including the American Library Association's Pura Belpre Medal, an International Reading Association Award, and the Americas Award, presented at the Library of Congress.

Copyright © 2008 by Margarita Engle. The poem may not be reproduced in any form without the author's express written permission.

Farewell Issue | JoMA Poetry Archives