What if Romeo and Juliet didn’t die together, but lived apart? If they each had to stay with their own kind, unable to let the other go, aching in their apartness that felt never-ending? But that waking dream of feeling the other all around, but never near—what if that slowly and imperceptibly faded into separate and productive lives, lives well and fully lived, as they say, and all the delicious pining gradually evaporated like water out of the sea, until the ocean floor of their lives lay warm in the sun, untroubled by the longing that had once consumed them?

“Help Me Lift You Up,” written and performed by Mary Margaret O’Hara, 1988.

This post is part of Music 100, a love letter to songs. 100 words on 100 songs in 100 days, running from Groundhog Day to 4th of July, 2025.

To receive a weekly summary rather than a daily email, please subscribe on my Substack blog The Impatient Reader. Instructions here.