Gregory Richard Barden | + Follow Poet |
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aching sky

* A bit of sci-fi what-if?, about a lone man on Ganymede, witnessing the destruction of Io by the natural forces of Jupiter *

       ~

I knelt amidst the mountain's rise
        beneath the weeping opal skies
            there to measure Io's swoon
    the envy of each lesser moon
trembling like a gold doubloon
        (heaven's tinged and gilded prize)

        great Jupiter, the Lord of All
            filled the sky with amber pall
    one reddened eye to consecrate
the anguish of dear Io's fate
        years too soon, but eons late
            shaking with a haggard wrawl

            Io, once resigned its doom
    yet, an orb of ravished bloom
(spurned as Zeus' paramour)
        shuddered to its carnal core
            wept, to mark Europa's door
    the threshold to its fiery tomb

    I, stood lone on Ganymede
minding Io's breaching bleed
        as fissures split its relic face
            a mocking veil of Guipure lace
    ceding ripe, its fall from grace
author of such caustic screed

Europa, in her jealous bend
        paid scant mind to Io's rend
            jaundiced of Callisto's bough
    negligent, would disavow
keen to hide her withered brow
        skirting Jove to thus attend

        in their haste to swift, depart
            sundered Io's weary heart
    forces much too fierce to shun
imploring mercy, gaining none
        confident her time was done
            rattled death, then broke apart

            as mine, the only sentient eyes
    attesting Io's bright demise 
not in want of tears to shed
        spirit harrowed deep with dread
            felt some tribute should be said
    but managed only muted cries

    it wrought such horrid irony
that Io's witness fell to me
        a spurious and tragic fate
            for I, at best, was second-rate
    at physics AND as potentate
and seemed such grand calamity

    and yet ...

blessed was I by honor, deep
        that my eyes were there to weep
            thus, I vowed in prayer to write
    the awful beauty of that sight
Io's death throes, bursting bright!
        Lord Zeus' lover ... laid to sleep.

    (the promise that ... I hereby keep)









( photograph of Jupiter, Io and Ganymede by Marco Lorenzi, August 25, 2020 )

Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden | Year Posted 2024

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