I must be dreaming. Alas, through
every dream, like pain through
anesthesia, a torturous
reality shows up.
A burning taste of jealousy.
A blind deaf muteness of
lust… I think I’d better add more
rosemary in the roast.
Procne, daughter of the king of Athens, is a figure in Greek mythology. She found out that her husband, the king of Fokida, Tereus, violated her sister, Philomela, and ripped out her tongue to hide his crime. Angry Procne killed her son from Tereus and fed the husband his meat. Zeus turned Philomela into swallow, Procne — into nightingale and Tereus — into hoopoe.
Categories:
procne, myth,
Form: Verse
Blessed be the hour when angels
shake my filth off their wings.
The night was a garden of eyes*.
Luckily, days are blind.
Mute with the sinful obsession,
deaf to the call of blood,
I look forward to the next night
coming, burning with shame.
* “The Blue Bouquet” by Octavio Paz.
Philomela, daughter of the king of Athens, is a figure in Greek mythology. She was visiting her sister, Procne, wife of the king of Fokida, Tereus. Tereus violated Philomela and ripped out her tongue to hide his crime. Angry Procne killed her son from Tereus and fed the husband his meat. Zeus turned Philomela into swallow, Procne — into nightingale and Tereus — into hoopoe.
25.08.2019
Choose An Octavio Paz Line Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: nette onclaud
Syllables Per Line: 8 6 8 6 0 8 6 8 6
Categories:
procne, myth,
Form: Verse