What Are Gods

Having successfully seduced Zeus with his boyish beauty, Whose eagle's claws captured the once mortal soul, He was blessed with immortality and endowed with divine duty, To bear cups and have filled to the top his bottom's bowl. Had pride pervailed in Tros over the gods' pederastic fun? Had the horses traded sufficed? Had the godly grace which erased the human race in his son, Paid the pitiless peasant an even price? If Daedalus could see his son soar once more, Under the sun's warmest of rays, Would he wish for Icarus to return to the floor, Or visit the heavens intent to stay? Meer mortals envision Mount Olympus from its feet, Where shephards and fisherman fight, Nature personified by Gods whose tricks or treats, Require that we inquire who controls day and night. What if the Anemoi were really our amygdalai, Their cardinal winds were in our minds, And Appolo's light or Aphrodite's love we've deified, Were our own devices whose control we must find? We are the Gods of planet Earth, Our home whom we must nurture, And see its beauty for what it's worth, For if we don't we'll all be tortured, By the invented gods we've given birth, In our thoughts to explain chaos and order.