Juliet

What has man made of her?
A woman of bronze with breasts of gold.
A woman frozen in time,
A page in a story that was never her own.

          What has she become?
          A woman’s body, sculpted by his hand.
          So, too, has her legacy,
          Forever molded to his plan.

                    What might she have been?
                    A woman of metal, weathered by time.
                    Kissed by her mother,
                    By the rain, and the snow, the sun and its shine.

                    Who was she before?
                    A woman, long since forgotten.
                    In the shadow of her body,
                    A ripe, juicy fruit, but the rest of her, rotten.

          Who is she now?
          A statue of a woman, no taller than a man.
          Touched, and groped and fondled,
          Merely because he can.

For I can’t help but feel,
That if giants walked among the rest,
Old Lady Liberty herself,
Would have a single gleaming breast.

Ella Newell is a writer whose work features themes of coming-of-age, nostalgia, and womanhood. She has a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. She currently resides in Charlotte, NC, where she works as a high school English teacher and lives with her sisters, two dogs, and cat. Her work can be found in the feminist publication redrosethorns journal, Apotheca Journal, and The Lit Nerds. Her story "Mermaids” was a finalist for the 2024 James Hurst Prize for Fiction.