Juliet and Mystery   I should have been more strange, I must confess . . .   II.ii   Lately Juliet stalks the street, eyes narrowed and flickering until the scene resembles some gritty downtown matinee. She’s on the lookout for gaps in the scenery in which to plant her clues: a dime into a sidewalk crack, a button to mend the fence, a doll flown nude into the tree.   Later her friend will hunt each one down. Then they will fan these provocations among their knees and invent their portent: a payment to Hades, a lover’s invitation, a warning from Canis Major.   Really Juliet does not want explanations. She just wants to loiter on the tantalizing edge of understanding.   Laziness. Idolatry. A mystery. Then she realizes, a seduction, her first.     Originally published in Runes, Fall 2003. Copyright Nancy Taylor Everett