There will be several Hades poems

[rozk]

Descent

There are some very simple ways to Hell,
but none are for the living. It is hard
to leave the sunlit lands. There is a guard
not only at the Gate; the paths as well

are policed. He found the journey was so long
that he grew tired as death, and could not sleep
and staggered on. The way down is so steep
and each guard needed pleasing with a song

and he would have grown hoarse, but had to please
the guards with songs of innocence and love,
the harmless pleasures of the world above.
He had not thought such monsters could find peace

in such – gryphons and chimeras and weres -
could rest and lay aside their savage cares.

Comments

[larryhammer]

I really like the first ten lines or so, but the conclusion ... doesn't nail the landing. (The last six feel flaccid, actually, not as tight as the start, and a bit repetitious.) As if there's something not quite there yet.

---L.