Abscond
(The prompt calls for choosing a single word;
Dredging up a hundred would be absurd.
Why waste the readers’ time and mine,
when one good poem should do just fine?)
-o-
If Romeo had absconded with Juliet one night,
Shakespeare might not have had a play to write.
He didn’t care much for happy endings
(with exceptions worth defending).
‘Abscond’ is worthy, I trust you will agree;
Too bad it can’t be used retroactively.
Had The Bard but put that word into play,
His dead lovers might be living today.
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