Siduri Press

Before it was a play, Romeo and Juliet was a poem, first in Italian, then in French, and finally in English. Now it's a poem again! Capuleft and Montaright is an entirely modern, somewhat sexy re-imaging of the timeless tale as a sword-and-cell-phone novel-in-verse: fast-paced, fun, and a bit queer.

In a nameless City where right-handed people have long oppressed the left-handers, Romeo of Montaright and Juliet of Capuleft fall in love, and their cousins Ben, Ty, and Rosalyn, and their friend Mercutio, have to navigate the complex currents of prejudice, convention, and desire to bring the two lovers together, all while sorting out their own tangle of platonic and romantic attachments with a minimum of projectile vomiting.

A true novel, Capuleft and Montaright has the kind of characterization, action, plot and subplots you'd expect. It just happens to also be written in verse:

Two lefty toughs leaped out toward Romeo
to punish him for his bold transgression
and though his speed should give him great protection
his feet became entangled and he fell!
Now looming over him they came, the pair,
large and thickly built, while Romeo
scrambled his lithe form across the flags
and rounded cobbles of the City square.

Ben pressed ahead, dodging flying missiles
thrown from hands uncaring who they hit
so long as they could vent their righteous anger
across the vivid air of summer dusk.

The light was fading out, the summer day
was bringing its long twilight to an end
as melees scattered all across the square
and Ty approached near Romeo to send
him off across a river where the price
of passage was a pair of coins, alone.

Now on sale at Amazon everywhere!