I long, but our thoughts do not align

[qimissung]

Day breaks
I wake to
Dreaming consciousness
Affix a look of cheerful terror
To my face
Sometimes it slips, and
In unguarded moments
Choler glares

Duty waits
For Cerberus and I
Who, together, man
This dusty outpost
My hand, better fitted for a pen,
Takes up the civil sword
And wields it awkwardly
Hacking at the resident Hydra
Twelve hours pass
One head falls, two more appear

I stop
Avert my head from this opaque triumph,
Drink, look up
As Atlas and Sisyphus, also here
contemn and turn away
Cerberus, at my side,
Defends my kneecap
But another head can
Wait another day

Grumbling and growling
He says he must be fed
As I appease his hideous hunger
One head harangues
Another looks at me with laughing eyes
The third rebuffs
I long, but our thoughts do not align
I wish I had more food for him and me
But it is not to be

Each day I work so hard
But hero that I am
I fail to charm
I long for conversation
And writhe within
My crowded loneliness

Sometimes I break free
I pay my ticket
Await the train
Ask biting questions
When it fails to come
And then, with Cerberus nipping
At my heels,
Walk home again
As darkness falls


Qimissung
July 24, 2008

[blazeofglory]

The very title is moving.

[ctalerico]

Unless there's an alternate spelling of which I'm unaware, I think you mean "Cerberus". Interesting poem but I'm not altogether certain I caught or understood all the mythical allusions.

[qimissung]

Thanks-that is who I mean. I've been saying it the way I spelled it.

This poem, while it started out to be about something else, is my best representation of what it's like to live in poverty, or with an unsolvable problem. Would it help a reader to have a title that at least alludes to that? As for Cerberus, I took a literary license here; he is, of course, the dog who guards the entrance to Hades. Here, he is the helper (but symbolically something else again) of a garden variety hero, a working man or woman, who "works hard for a living." I thought of calling it "A Day in the Life, " but that's already taken. Any ideas or suggestions?

The Hydra is the nine-headed monster originally slain by Hercules. When one head was whacked off, two more grew in its' place.

[white camellia]

Each day I work so hard
But hero that I am
I fail to charm
I long for conversation
And writhe within
My crowded loneliness

I like this stanza. And I agree with blaze about the title. As I understand it, it does happen to me.

[qimissung]

Thank you for your input, White Camilla. Yeah, it's happens with me, too.