A Homeless Adulterer

[sangha]

It sprang from applying the Prometheus mythology to Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire
=D. Enjoy...hopefully.


fine promethean hands
jettison out from his sternum,
backed with excellent posture though they be,
they are the jetsam of his
eroded dignity

hunched (in excellent posture)
the man's thoughts sail across
his tired, hollow home
hollow because he lied...
to his wife, but not with her

Cry Mercy! And let loose the dogs of --
heartache drips, a candle over
the fire he stole from his beloved (la bella dame sans merci)
and spent upon mortal lust.
it burns at him, leaving nothing but

seared flesh, stark and acute, assuaged only by
godsend - a liver-devouring bottle of Kentucky Eagle Rare...

He'll sleep soon, and wake soon, and beg soon,
on the side of his cardboard manor,
chained to the dying ember of his memories,
for a quarter so that he might blow a breath of life
onto that dying ember...like a man in an arctic telephone booth

but now, for now, he has only his cardboard memories,
his obligation to mortal lust,and a rotten liver.
He raises his head in a pious jerk:
"i am not" - but he is.
him, the forsaken, him wielding hands promethean.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I would almost have been content with the wit of the title, but the whole of this is a fine indictment of one immoral soul, and yet there is a leavening of humour throughout it.

Bravo!

[sangha]

awww...Yes, there is humor. But don't be so hard on the fella. He's trying. =).

Also, I have a question I forgot to mention, for you, Prince, and any one else reading this. Would you have figured out the character without the title? I tried to make it subtle but obvious. But it didn't work in the poem.

Second question, kind of related to the first. Do the following lines work?
hollow because he lied.../
to his wife, but not with her

I didn't know if anyone would get lost with the switch of meaning from lie as in falsehood to lie as in sleeping about.

Thanks!

[cogs]

sangha, cannot wait to read this when i have more time to absorb. i like to think you read mine, and created this fine work. that lied pun was quite amusing. see you then.

edit: next day: "chained to the dying ember of his memories," was interesting as a parallel with chained prometheus, and a pathos he cannot escape. also, "like a man in an arctic telephone booth" was both amusing and vivid. i didn't understand the hands, other than they are those that stole the fire. and i assumed the posture meant his stubborness to understand his "eroded dignity"? thank you for sharing.

[Dinkleberry2010]

I would not have figured out the character without the title. But I don't see how Cash's Ring of Fire enters into the poem. Ring of Fire was a song about passionate love.

I don't understand the line "Cry mercy! And let loose the dogs of--" Why did you leave that line blank? dogs of what?

Nevertheless, I find this poem fascinating, and some of the images are so vivid.