Visit my "We The Poets : Citizen Poetry" blog here: We The Poets
"We The Poets" is an open poetry workshop, based in my local area of Tamworth NH but open to anyone interested. I post writing exercises and examples of poetry on different topics and themes, usually weekly. With permission, some of the poetry generated is posted here too.
Cerberus
It seems officious
Guarding the living and the dead
Each from the other
And yet the passion
Has a fierce intensity
That lights the purpose
Those six wild eyes, those
Open sleepless mouths, that
Ever-vigilant
Living boundary
Keeps apart the somber realms
Their dark integrities
The dead are crowding
Shamans throw the poisoned meat
Orpheus sings, steps over
Minotaur
I remember Mummy picking me up and tickling me
But all the servants afraid and none of the children they brought
wanting to play
I smashed the little dog cart they brought to amuse me
Even the dogs were frightened.
As I grew the palace was my playground
I ran the corridors like a desert wind
Howling, howling -
They roped me, tangled me, chained me
Mummy was sad, came to me, had my room moved near her quarters.
Some nights, when I was calm, she held and stroked me,
Sang to me so sweetly the shadows danced.
Those nights she opened the shutters and showed me the moon.
The moon was bright and lonely, and I loved her with all my heart.
When Mummy died I tore my chains
And wandered the palace, free, unchallenged.
They fed me uncooked meat as if I were a monster
I called for dates and wine, but they pretended not to understand me
I cannot remember the first taste of human flesh
They kept me starving but they did not want me weak.
I hated them with all my heart.
Someone left the little windows on the moon
That was their kindness
When I grew calm the shadows danced again.
The first time the boys and girls were left inside the palace
I was hungry they had starved me restless weeks
The children were frail, dying. I waited until they were lying still
I did not wish to kill them they were no sport for me
I was no ravenous monster
The years went by, and the princess grew.
Mummy had died when she was small and she was kept from me
But one night she crept to my windows
Reached through and touched my face.
And then she learned my speech
We talked all night my heart was kindled she was sweet and bright.
She was my sister my third true love.
Then he came.
It was the season the ships arrived,
The time of hunger.
She came and begged me to spare him
So I told her the rules she did not understand
How the children were fated to die.
She wept
I had a vision made the shadows dance
How I could make her happy
How it was my time to die, and he could leave the palace in glory.
It was my time I said, in all the darkness I had been happy
With Mummy and the moon, and her.
She cried and thanked me as a sister.
She was a clever girl, she saw the opportunity.
A sword was what she gave him, no fabled ball of string
The labyrinth was the palace. corridors of destiny,
Our fates that ending, endless day.
He was the stuff of heroes, feeble man
And I the stuff of legend, I had seen the shining path
And left the trail of life.
