A note from the Chosen One

Hey Hermes-
will you deliver a message
to uncle Hades
for me?
Tell him that Heracles
says hello,
great grandpa
Perseus died for not
and you're
no longer family,
but foe

The Great war of Gods-
cultural holocaust
came at cost of
this ruling Empire's
casualty
the fallout of this
divinity-driven obliteration
was not a myth,
parable or
oral story told
this decimation of
the Grecian Golden Age
was nightmarish
reality

You & Hera
sent two assassin
rattled-tail serpents to
strangle life from
my infant lungs,
and yet as I lay in that cot
a mere baby boy,
turned both hit-snakes
to limp shaking
musical-toy maracas,
and mother made
intricate patterned boots
from the skin they
shed when strangled
and stripped

As a teen,
I tricked Atlas
back into putting the sky
on his shoulders
killed the Nemean Lion
wore his hide,
slayed the Hydra,
fetched golden apples,
and captured
the Ceryneian Hind

So, uncle death-
I'll hop on the
winged back
of Pegasus, riding right
through Hade's gates-
knock the breath out of
your Cerebrus,
that guardian three headed
dog, and put
his bark right back in
its place

Cut your woman
Persephone down to size,
and take a
dive in that
Lazarus pit of revival,
show the pyres who's boss
of this Underworld
realm of
hellfire

I know not what it takes
to be either
Man or
immortal
never truly been either,
as a Demi-God
I possess strengths
of both denominations,
but doubly so
I possess their flaws

Climbing to the top
of Mount Olympus
is fruitless
if all I do is hear
lecture from the Oracles
of how I'll never be great
as father Zeus, or
reign up high, king of Kings
and they're probably right
harsh as that seems,
I'm not even
sure at this point what ascending
to heaven really means

What I know is that
a normal life
on Earth,
ranks higher than
flawless sky floating-
the artistic influence of
Harp-plucked music,
art drawn on rich tablets
and banquet feasts
of decadence
symbolized the peak,
diplomatic Greece's
happiness was discovered
and its
apex reached
greatest stride with
the last days for
this reign of
the Coliseum

Being alive alongside
mankind
when wrath comes
is truly the only
adventure worth having
when you're born
half-God and have the
safety net option of
immortality

I chose to be made
vulnerable;
to feel both
love
and pain,
and be equal with all

Embracing this Fall-
to die
with my own
human breed
was more heroic
to me,
than any
Herculean
feat








(c) Paul LaTorre 2010