Darrell Petska

What’s In a Name

Had the Bard ogled
the source material
so many of us have
nearly 400 years later,
he might have rewritten
Juliet’s soliloquy concerning
a rose—

how could
Norma Jeane Dougherty
          (or the proposed)
Carol Lind
Clare Norman
          (or god forbid!)
Meredith

ever smell as sweet
as our beloved starlet
who like Juliet
ended her life
for want of the one thing
her heart ever desired?

William Shakespeare,
meet the aptly named
Marilyn Monroe.

Darrell Petska is a retired university engineering editor and a 2021 Pushcart Prize nominee. His poetry and fiction can be found in 3rd Wednesday Magazine, Nixes Mate Review, Verse Virtual, Loch Raven Review and widely elsewhere (conservancies.wordpress.com). A father of five and grandfather of six, he lives near Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife of more than 50 years.