Poetry! (Mythic Verse, Vol. 1)
Table of Contents
Status "The Polyhymnia Conspiracy" "Hard Times" "The Seventh Seed" "Ancient Wisdom" "Encounter the Dragon" "The Lame God Can Barely Stand" "The Gender-Fluid Seer" "Be a Deer" "Kvasir's Guide to the Galaxy" "The Pella Curse Tablet" "Goddess of the Lockdown" "Xanthus" Copyright"The Lame God Can Barely Stand"
Hephaestus
in his workshop,
surrounded by intricate craft,
can take no pleasure
in his work.
Not while his forge-scarred fingers
burn
from this latest delivery
from the hands of Messenger Iris,
from his wife-
no, from his ex-wife now,
from his beautiful ex-wife,
the goddess of love,
the goddess of beauty,
the goddess of pleasure,
but not,
it seems,
the goddess of fidelity.
And also from him.
From him!
the god of ugly misshapen emotion,
the god of twisted unnatural combats,
and of whatever else she sees in him.
Ares!
Aphrodite!
Ares and Aphrodite!
The lame god can barely stand
to say their names.
The lame god can barely stand
to look into in his forge-scarred hands
at the wedding invitation.
"They'll want a gift,"
thinks Hephaestus,
Lord of the Forge,
and then he smiles,
and then he smirks,
and then he laughs
loud enough
to shake the foundations of his volcanic lair.
He was wrong.
He can take pleasure in his work,
after all.
Greg R. Fishbone
July 2020
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