Adam McOmber
Silk masks for the Capulet’s ball. Lanterns or torches. Flowers for the balcony—black locust, oleander, pomegranate. Stacks of books. Twice-written letters. Mercutio’s sword, shining. Remember that every demand is essentially a demand for love. Sleeping potions. Black funeral ribbons. The mechanisms of a dream—a strange boat, a river (pale water, nearly white), Romeo himself. He has blond hair. Strong shoulders. He reminds you of someone from your younger days. Someone you could talk to. A graveyard. A second graveyard. A dagger (of course). The smell of bonfires. A tavern made of wax and paper where Romeo and Mercutio huddle, drinking black ale. They laugh together as young men will. Romeo’s knee presses against Mercutio’s. There’s a quiet conversation. It isn’t written down. You have to understand that. More daggers. More flowers. Queen Mab. Iron tools to break open a tomb. What does it feel like to fall asleep inside a dream? Two men kissing, the way that feels. Stubble against stubble. The friar’s holy book. The relationship between the organism and its reality. A bed for Romeo and Mercutio. Make it out of straw. Hide it away in the dark where the horses are kept. The way the two men lay together, hips pressed. The heat of that. Romeo runs the tips of his worn fingers down Mercutio’s left arm. A scar from some fight in the streets. Mercutio shudders. “There should be a place where two men can live together,” Romeo says. He kisses Mercutio’s neck. “A secret stage. A place where nothing can be taken from them.” A dog barking. A silver chest. A coffin. No. The way the moonlight is. Their lips. Their eagerness as they fuck. Evidence that we don’t all have to die.
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Adam McOmber is the author of four novels, The White Forest (Touchstone), Jesus and John (Lethe), The Ghost Finders (JournalStone) and Hound of the Baskervilles (Lethe) as well as three collections of short stories, My House Gathers Desires (BOA), This New & Poisonous Air (BOA) and Fantasy Kit (Black Lawrence). He is co-chair of the Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts as well as editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Hunger Mountain.