"Green Barrel Cactus" by Josette Urso
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from beds of raging fire to starve in ice*
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1
Once while being brought
From beds of raging fire
To starve in ice
I took up a pointed sword
Against the Gorgon
And pierced the Gorgon's heads
That stood a guard there,
And took a mirror
To myself
For the Medusa
To turn my image into stone
As a reflection,
And dipped into the River Lethe.
2
The water doesn't run
That is a legend,
But coats the lip
And hand
With water's softness
The softness of a life
Gone unremembered
And sunk in some lost grave
Without a marker.
The water doesn't run
The water offers
And offering, offers again
And offering again
Insists
To one so fare from sleep
That he is dreaming
Day dreams
Dreams of day
That he escape there,
Take up his hollow sword
And take his mirror
And dip into the waters
Of the river.
*In case you don't have a trusty copy of Paradise Lost handy, the Lethe is the fifth river in Hell, the river of forgetfulness. The damned are dragged from Hell's heat across the Lethe to the frozen waste on the other side. The Lethe is guarded by the Medusa and Gorgon to prevent the damned from drinking, for they continually attempt to drink and forget themselves, to not be. Legend has it that the Lethe runs from their hands and can never be touched.
Marc Penka 2002
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