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Sauce*Box Winter 1998-99
Lament Upon a Meadow
by JCA
Vain and proud, men think they perceive
some paragon of the sublime,
fawning before earth's Darkest Queen.
Yet even Rossetti's brush fails
your sable-wreathed countenance,
You -- fair goddess of the nether world,
the one bequeathing to Sirens
the placid faces of virgins...
Dancing on Sicily's warm earth,
deception took you from us --
from lovely Calypso's longing,
from pretty Ocyrhoe's desires,
from the daughters of Damophon;
-- cheated by the red, dripping sex
of some dreamy pomegranate.
Such furtive seeds, tasted by force.
Now, here breathes my trenchant envy:
She who wields the bright headband,
minister and companion yet:
Hecate, who disrobed you --
mysteries unveiling secrets.
For beyond Hades' futile thrusts,
you held dear the burning strokes
of that Witch's velvet clutching.
But you'll forget Timoleon,
though he gave his vessel your Name?
Even the spirit Adonis,
whose antiphon resonates still,
is but longing's shattered mirror.
So let Aphrodite take him.
Let Hecate suck her honey.
Hurl the Gorgon's head at them all!
And what of that high-born maiden,
fairest daughter of Heracles?
Did you savor Macaria
with a sweet fire-storm of flesh
to obtain Athen's victory?
Does tingling memory recall
dampening scarlet mouths, in warm
Eleusinian Mysteries?
So -- for us -- nothing in the dark
remembers like the lips and skin.
What many allurements you bear
in each delirious whisper,
ever fresh upon the bright world!
Rising from earth's deep recesses,
I see you grace the naked earth --
in your hand, the lotus scepter.
Within the measure of your touch,
in the sorcery of your flesh
lies the provocative solace
arising from your ardent thighs,
laying bare my defloration.
Who adores you, Persephone?
your own scent reveres you,
ever more fragrant than Eleusis.
The torches in your grasp will beg:
enlighten now the upward path;
fragrant temples still await you.
Come again to the upper sun
where I languish, insatiate
breed anew your island splendor;
weave my flowers into garlands
taste once more, sweet virility.
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