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Poems - Bring the Birds
| | Bring the Birdsby RIJaybird
Some say I brought fire to you
Others say I put the fire in you
Either way
it was I who taught you how to burn
My nephew knew the risks
& wanted to wash the slate clean
but I had high hopes
helped you tread high waters
taught you how to survive
how to thrive
to live
to light the way
for yourselves & others
how to burn
& you have never stopped burning
Whatever is laid in front of you
you put a flame to it
even your brother
& when he learned to back away
out of the reach of your flame
you learned to throw it
shoot it
drop it
launch it
fire it from the sky
& when your brother was still standing
you taught the flame to burn hotter
burn brighter
burn long after it dies
to be all-consuming
to be your echo
your reflection
your clone
burning from the inside out
destroying all you touch
It’s been said that my punishment was
to have an eagle eat the lobes of my liver
only to have the liver grow back
so that the torture could continue for all eternity
but it was enough just to tie me to this rock
high above the inferno
forced to witness what you’ve done
with my gift to you
Oh, Zeus!
Would that you had sent more than just an eagle for my liver!
Would that you had sent a hawk for my heart
or magpies for my eyes!
Let me not see this abomination of man
Let me not feel this pain
this sorrow
this shame
Let me not feel
Let me be mortal
Let me starve
& bleed
& die
Let me die
Let me stay dead
rather than watch this tragedy play out
& die a hundred thousand times
Gods, the smell
the smell of seared flesh
& scorched earth
Gods, the sound of wailing enough to drown my own screams
Gods, the pain
the pain of this pride turned poison
irony twisting like a blade in my belly
worse than this one bird
Oh, Gods!
just this one bird!
Bring a buzzard for my beak
so that I don’t have to smell
Bring gulls for my ears
so that I don’t have to hear
Bring a bevy of birds to this Titanic buffet
to pick my bones clean
Just please
don’t leave me here
don’t make me watch
hear
smell
feel
don’t make me live this
please
it burns.
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  | Tags: Prometheus, man, fire, birds, regret, hubris, irony, Hellenic, mythology, punishment, Titan |
| "Bring the Birds" | Login/Create an Account | 4 |
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| The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
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Re: Bring the Birds
(Score: 1 )
by RIJaybird on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 (14:00:14) |
When I previewed this post, it showed me that I had properly used the HTML code to indent in the right places, but it's not showing any indent now; I'm really aggravated & disappointed by this.
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Re: Bring the Birds
(Score: 1 )
by John on Friday, December 24, 2010 (23:24:54) |
I fixed the formatting for you. Click on "Modify" down below to see what I did. Just use the [code] [/code] tags...
Nice poem!
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Re: Bring the Birds
(Score: 1 )
by TheBohemian on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 (15:41:17) |
Even though this is not in your desired format, it is amazing content. I don't think the use of html works on this page. I've tried and only the tools provided work when you post.
TB
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Re: Bring the Birds
(Score: 1 )
by RIJaybird on Monday, December 27, 2010 (15:49:40) |
What John did with the [code][/code] tags works fine; just put them at the top & bottom, respectively, of your posts & the indents stay put. Thanks, John!
Added on: 22-Dec-2010 | Hits: 192 |
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01: wordsmithwan...
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